HOW ARTIFICIAL PEARLS ARE MADE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7851, 13 July 1911, Page 11

HOW ARTIFICIAL PEARLS ARE MADE

Tho art of malting imitation pearls has been brought to such a state of perfection of late years in Paris that even jewellers and pawnbrokers bavo been in doubt as to whether specimens have been real or artificial. The inventor of this manufacture was one Jaquin, a French headmakcr, who noticed that when the Bleak (a small fish found in most English and French rivers) is washed, the water contains a largo quantity of fine, silver-tinted scales. Jaquin collected some of those for uso in his work, and finding that, when dry, the substance looked lire pearl dust, he named it “Essence u - Orient" {essence of pearl). Pis first experiment was the making of heads of gypsum, and covering them wph the ‘‘essence." They became the rage of Paris; but when they got warm the pearly coating was transferred to the nock ot the wearer. Then woman’s inventive capabilities osscitcil themselves, the ladies suggested that Jaquin should make hollow glass beads and fill them with the “essence. Slender tubes of glass, called girasols," from their bluish tint, were prepared, and from them small globules were blown by tli o artist, who could make a number varying from two thousand to six thousand a day. Next the pearl essence is mixed with a strong hot solution of isinglass, grid fi drop of the mixture put into each bead by means cf a glass blowpipe. The glaze is spread over the inside in an agitator above the bench, kept in motion by tho artist s foot. MOTOR BOAT ON THE DEAD SEA The legendary site of Sodom and Gomorra is about tho last place on earth one would expect to find a motor boat, but a traveller describes such an experience very Avidly. Undoubtedly, one of the strangest things about tho. Dead Sea is the density of its waters. It contains 23 per cent, ot solid matter and is. bulk for bulk, heavier than the human body. Perhaps a bettor idea of tliG density of. the water of this inland sea may be realised from the following table;—ln a ton of water from the Caspian -Sea there are 111 b of salt; in the Baltic, 181 b; in the Black Sea, 261 b; in tho Atlantic, Sllb: in the English Channel. 721 b: in the Mediterranean, 851 b: in the Red Sea, 931 b; and in .the Bead Sea, 1871 b.