THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAJfD. JUNE 21, 1908.
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BY JOHN ELFRETH ,WATKIXS.
p UK man who learns to manu-
- S fncture diamonds fit for the
- trade will take advantage of the
De Beers proposition and hold them in re
serve, letting them out gradually," said
Mr. Wirt Tassln, gem expert ot the
United States National Museum, in an
swer to my question yEterday as to
whether a full realization of the alleged
scheme ' of Henry Lemoine-now in the
Paris limelight would reduce the cost
of diamonds to a (ew dollars a carat,
as has been predicted.
"Do you believe that Lemoine's propo
sition to artificially manufacture a cylin
drical diamonds, six centimeters long by
three centimeters In diameter and above
the average density, can ever be realized
by the most skillful scientists?" I further
asked Mr. Tassln.
"I am not disputing! a single assertion
In this particular line of research," said
he. "Diamonds are now being manu
factured artificially, their chemical and
physical properties being the same as
those of mined stones. As to the size
which such artificial diamonds can at
tain, I will only say that today all things
are possible."
"How are diamonds now manufac
tured?" Two Ways of Making Diamonds.
"There are several methods. Moisson
of Paris dissolves carbon In molten steel
at an enormous temperature and pres
sure, and then suddenly chills the mass,
which reveals microscopic diamonds, also
diamond dust in more or less abundance.
"Artificial diamonds are not infre
quently formed by accident in ordinary
cast iron, and it is more than likely that
an examination of the residue of ordinary
Iron castings would result in the discov
ery of many of these gems.
"I lately discovered some artificial dia
monds in a peculiar manner. I was
machining' the fragment of an old sugar
kettle, which developed exceptional hard
ness, and when I dissolved a fraprment
It yielded two minute diamonds. Bos.se!
of Uermany has treated ordinary steel
for diamonds and has secured several
transparent crystal fragments, together
with quite a number of minute, well
formed, elsht-faced crystals the charac
teristic form of the diamond crystal.
These have been indisputably proved to
be diamonds. He has carried on a num
ber of investigations along tnis line, and
has found that hard steels produced un
der high temperatures "and cooled under
great pressures usually yield diamonds;
also that unhammered and unrolled mild
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MERITS OF CABBAGES ANDONIONS
MY cabbage patch is the pride of
my garden. A cabbage head Is
such a comfortable thing, just the
right color, not the raw, vivid hue of the
lettuce, nor the fussy mottle of the po
tato, but a clear, soft, green, lightly
veilod with sliver network or blanched
to ivory whiteness In the center. And
the Bhape, so perfectly rounded, resting
upon a rosette of curled leaves, upborne
by strong, firm stem. We call the cab
bage .."a common plant," but It belongs
to a noble family; it is a cousin of the
aristocratic palm . and one of the great
cruclferae, or cross-bearing family, that
has no poisonous or hurtful members. It
Is found wild on the rocks by the sea
shore, in the Island of Laland, in Den
mark, the Island of Heligoland, the south
of England and Ireland and in the Chan
nel Isles and on the shores of the Med
iterranean. It was a food-plant and
carefully cultivated before the dawn of
history, aid we- read that the intellec
tual Greeks ate it to make them strong
In mind as well as body.
This is a day for pleasant thoughts
and vagrant fancies, and as I look at my
cabbage patch I am once more In, the
little French village on the gray Breton
coast. It is a land of gardens, of fruits
and vegetables, enough to feed all the
great cities, and every man you meet is
a gardener. And as we walk along the
white road we see tall palm trees and
little children playing in their shade.
And far on the bright sea glitters be
tween the tapering stems and the sun
light changes the foam into countless
little rainbows, rising and falling all the
while. It Is a scene from fairyland, a
memory of the Arabian Nights, with
their beautiful but Impossible pictures.
For these graceful palm trees ara but
- MADE
Di
IAMONDS
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II, &r,-
steels yield . well-formed. eight-faced
crystals of this class. The higher the
temperature at which the steel is made
the greater is the quantity of the dia
monds formed.
"Another German method yielding
even better results is to melt olivin,
or chrysolite, and to stir it with a
graphite rod, after which it is allowed
to cool. The mass is then dissolved
and the residue is found to contain dia
monds. In all of these cases the dia
monds thus far manufactured are very
minute. As yet there is no published
account from reliable sources of the
manufacture of such a gem which by
any stretch of the imagination would
be regarded as a commercial proposi
tion. Here is a phial containing 1000
of such artificial diamonds as have
been obtained to date. They look like
fine' powder and scarcely cover the
bottom of the phial.
cabbages, and their waving tufts merely
the exaggerated cabbage heads of our
everyday gardens. In this, paradise of
vegetables, the cabbage, for once, be
comes a thing of beauty. Tall and slen
der, with their loose gray-green leaves
springing in tufts a-top of six-foot stems,
the sea breeze tossing them, the sunlight
dancing in checkers along the alleys, the
songs and calls of the sunburnt chil
dren flitting in and out what a pictur
esque scene for a cabbage patch?
, Land of Kitchen Gardens.
Everywhere we find unexpected beau
ties in this land of kitchen gardens. We
forget flowers, for the time, when we see
the scarlet carrots and .the red beets,
the smooth golden rind and warmer flesh
of the pumpkins; the cauliflowers,
creamy and globular. In their encircling
fringe of tender green,-the purple tur
nips, the mottled radish. We linger In
the field or before the market corners,
full of wonder at the loveliness of these
useful foods and at their perfection of
form and color. But the cabbages are
too fine and beautiful for market or shop.
They are a part of the great outdoor
picture as they toss their plumed heads
In the green groves of the hillsides, with
the sun of the south full on their loose,
frilled leaves, and the sea glittering be
tween and beyond their long, pale
stems.
If the cabbage patch is the pride of
my garden, the long, straight rows of
onions are Its ornament. Some one has
said that the onion Is one of those
strenuous vegetables about which one
cannot be indifferent. One either loves It
with a passionate devotion or else utter
ly repudiates it, and everybody who has
any trafficking with it. So long as victuals
and drink continue to be the chief of our
diet, the onlpn will keep on being glori
4?2Z MDj?r2rZ.
'.'The public has r.ct fully awakened
to the fact that iran has already
learned to manufacture the world's
most costly gem of all the ruby. The
best Oriental rubies were worth twice
to six times the price of big diamonds
of equal weight before the artificial
ruby was discoiered. The manufacture
of artificial rubies has gone beyond
the experimental stage, and many hun
dreds of carats of these stone's are now
on the market under the name of
"manufactured," 'scientific,' 'artificial'
and "reconstructed" rubles.
"In France- they are manufactured
in this way: Powder rich in alumina
(oxid .of aluminum) is. dropped upon
platinum wire suspended in the center
of an oxyacctaline or oxhydrogen
flame. The tine powder fuses and the
fused globule is gradually built up,
by addition of more powder and a
fied by some and despised by others. In
a clever book, Mrs. Fennel! recently
glorifies the onion as "the rose among
roots, without which there would be no
gastronomic art. Its presence lends
color and enchantment to the most mod
est dish; its absence reduces the rarest
dainty to hopeless Insipidity and the
diner to despair." In this book she em
ploys all the aid of adjectives and "apt
alliteration" to set forth her favorite
dainties.
She writes about the magnificent mush
room, the triumphant tomato, the simple
sole, the subtle sandwich, and In like
fashion until she comes to "the incom
parable onion," and calls It "the climax
of the feast-" Its fragrance abounds In
associations glad ana picturesque. All
of glorious Italy Is in (the fine, penetrating
smell, and ail Provence and all Spain.
It is In the atmosphere breathed by the
Latin, people, so that, ever It must sug
gest blue skies and endless sunshine,
cypress grove's and olive orchards. It Is
interwoven with memories of the golden
canvases of Titian, the songs of Dante,
the music of Mascagnl.
Spanish Onions the Best.
According to Mrs. Pennell some rank
the onion as a root sacred to Venus, a
food for lovers. The ancient Greeks and
Romans had several varieties, and in
Egypt it received divine honors. In the
Far South the onion is more opulent, like
the beauty of its women. It gains In fla
vor by losing in strength. Our onion is
strong to the point of rankness; there
fore the Spanish onion Is the best, and
in India the onion is but' a pale parody
of the English one. As for the garlic,
which Is a sort of cousin of the onion,
the verses of all Southern poets smell
sweet of Its piquant delights. The
rhymes of Mistral recall It. It is the
little coloring oxide, into a button or
bead of good color, which, like a mined
ruby, is finally cut for the trade.
"These artificial rubies are selling
for varying prices, and to the untrained
eye are like the mined ruby in both
color and brilliancy. But when put un
der a magnifying glass even of low
power they are found to have numerous
'striae,' or lines, and minute bubbles,
which at once distinguish them from
the mined stones.
"Another method of manufacturing
rubies is to fuse chemically prepared
alumina mixed with a flux containing
coloring oxides, chiefly chromic oxide,
in an electric furnace. The mixture is
slowly brought to the melting point,
kept there for a time and then quickly
cooled on the outside, the interior be
ing cooled as slowly as possible. When
properly cooled the mass, on being
essence of bullfights and farandoles. All
through the adventures of Don Quixote
it floats, a real perfume, and in the
salads of the Old Testament it holds first
place. The earliest people of Europe
and Western Asia cultivated garlic from
Tartary to Spain, and it has always
been a part of Chinese diet. The shal
lot Is to the onion as the sketch to the
finished picture. It never attains to the
untempered voluptuousness of the onion,
and does not assert itself with the fury
of garlic. Shallots for Summer use,
olives and garlic for Spring. In all the
gardens of colonial days there were
quaint borders of chives, with fine grass
like leaves and purple blossoms. We
seldom see them nowadays, for they are
a delicate 'little second cousin of the
onion and cannot live through our cold
Winters.
All of these high-flavored plants have
rare medicinal value. And one critic de
clares "the secret of good cooking lies In
-the discreet and sympathetic treatment
of the onion. It gives vivacity to soups,
it is the poetic soul of the salad bowl,
the touch of romance in the well-cooked
vegetable. All of the old-time salad
makers had some secrets of their own as
to how much or how little onion should
be mingled with the other herbs. Many
of our well-known diners out were proud
er of their salad-making than of their
wit or wisdom. We read of Dumas that
he pinned his hopes for fame on his
recipe for onion soup rather than on his
many novels, and of Sydney Smith,
called In his day "the wittiest man in
England," it was said that he gloried in
the fact that he alone of all the literary
circle knew just how much onion to
mix In a bowl of salad. A witty writer
has had much to say about people who
are Bromides and people who are Sul
phides. Perhaps we may call the cab
bage a bromide among plants and the
onion a sulphide. The one so comforta
ble looking, stolid and tasteless, the
other so straight, so spikey. so fiery. E.
A. Matthews In the St. Louis Globe-DemocraL
broken open, Is found to contain clear,
glassy, red nodules (knots or lumps)
standing out in sharp contrast against
a dull red brick-colored ground mass.
"These glassy lumps are then cut
for the market and generally have a
richer color than the artificial rubles
produced by the French method. The
invention Is that of an American who
is as yet withholding his name. Here
s one of his artificial rubies weigh
ing 16 carats. Its color and luster is
as great as that of the mfned ruby, and
its chemical and physical properties
are the same. It will scratch glass
with ease. It is worth about $240. If a
mined stone of the same color, it would
be priceless. In both of these methods
it is possible to carry the color, and
the best pigeonblood red is fixed by
the amount of chromic oxide added to
the original melts.
Artificial Emeralds, Sapphires and
Topazes.
"A blue color is produced by the
addition of cobalt, and thus are ob
tained artificial sapphires, whllo green
is obtained by adding another me
tallic oxide, and thus are produced
emeralds. But with the exception of
rubies practically nothing Is as yet
being done in the manufacture of arti
ficial' gems, what as yet are hardly
more than scientific curiosities are the
spinels and chrysoberyls lately pro
duced by a German, who has similarly
produced topazes of a fairly good size.
"But -when it comes down to the
diamond, those who now are really
making any progress are keeping quiet.
If they succeed they are not going to
knock the bottom out of the diamond
market."
"What raw material do they use?"
TO NATIONALIZE ENGLISH RAILWAYS
RAILWAY nationalization is fast be
coming one of the questions of prac
tical politics in England. Within a
very short time it probably will become
part of the recognized programme of
the Liberal party.
Two of the most influential ministers
already have declared for it. They are
Lloyd George, the new chancellor of the
exchequer and the man who has the un
disputed reversion of the premiership
after Mr. Asquith, aifd Winston Chur
chill, the brilliant son of an American
mother and the rising young man of
the Liberal party, who recently has
Ueen promoted to the important cabinet
office of president of the Board of
Trade. The latest recruit to the policy
is Sir John Brunner, a great Liberal
business man, who told the party plain
ly at its first meeting after Mr. As
quith's appointment as prime minister
that it was doomed unless it adopted a
"construction trade policy" and aban
doned the historic doctrine of laisse
falre in trade matters. At first this
declaration was hailed by the Unionist
press as a warning by Sir John in the
cause of free trade, but he since has
explained that what he means is not
the adoption of protection against
foreign imports, but -nationalization of
railways and canals and their manage
ment in the interest of the traders and
the country.
Strange to say there is little differ
ence of opinion among the people at
large on the subject- Even those who
are afraid of the very name of So
cialism are In favor of state railways.
The railway shareholders themselves,
who have seen their profits dwindling
and disappearing year after . year,
would be delighted to have government
"Chiefly sugar carbon carbon made
from burning sugar."
"Sophisticated Gems."
"Great progress is also being made
in turning out 'sophisticated gems.'
Thl enterprise, laTgely fraudulent,
consists of the substitution of cheaper
colorless stones for diamonds, green
garnets for emeralds, and so on. Cer
tain stones are treated with chemicals
or with heat to heighten or change
their colors and Increase their bril
liancy. The wine yellow topaz is
changed to pink, and a white one ren
dered whiter or more' brilliant by
treating becomes a sophisticated dia
mond. A hole Is drilled in an off-color
stone, which is then improved by fill
ing the cavity with a transparent
enamel: or the Inside of a setting may
be backed, painted or enameled. These
sophisticated gems are of far less
value than the artificial geni, whose
substance is identical or nearly iden
tical with that of the natural.
"'A lot of trade secrets have been
opened up by Investigations of these
sophisticated gems, many of which I
have reproduced in the laboratory. Kor
example, T have taken a wine-yellow
Brazilian topaz and by properly pack
ing it in magnesia and then carefully
heating it have changed its color to
a very beautiful rose pink. I thus
increased its value about twenty time.
Similarly a banded agate, with poor
contrast of color, when treated with
dyes and chemicals shows marked con
trasts and becomes beautiful. I have
soaked such agates in olive oil until
tliis has penetrated the more porous
parts, and then have boiled it in sul
phuric acid, which, in combination
with the oil. has turned the porous
parts to a rich velvety brown or black.
bonds bearing 4 per cent interest as a
substitute for their stock, which now
pays an average of only 3' per cent.
The fact is that the English railways
are amazingly overcapitalized. Ac
customed as the American is to the
watering of railway stock he would
be astonished at comparing the- real
value of some of the leading English
railways with their capital value. The
total capitalization of the railways of
the United Kingdom is about $6,500,
000,000, and it is estimated that at least
1.000,000,000 of this is water. The water
has been put in with no fraudulent in
tention, but is the natural result of the
slipshod methods of management which
grew up with the English railway sys
tem and never have been altered.
England was the pioneer in railway
building and the railways had to pay
heavily at the beginning to acquire the
necessary land for their lines and to
overcome the opposition and the preju
dices of the landowners. Furthermore,
it never has been the custom of the
English railway to set aside a part of
the profits for upkeep and Improve
ments. When improvements have had
to be made they have been paid for by
new stock issues.
It is estimated that, taking into ac
count the extra sum which would be
demanded by investors ,for "disturb
ance." and the natural premium that is
to be expected in such a transaction,
the railways would cost the govern
ment about JIO.000,000,000, and the ad
vocates declare that they not only could
be made helpful to the trade of the
country, but a valuable government as
set at that price.
A demand for Immediate railway re
form is made by every class of trader
In the community. The question of rates
is a great scandal, and the preference
the non-porous portions becoming
whiter by contrast. This Is done in
the manufacture of onyx cameos. In
deed, the porous portions of many
agates are, for the trade, artificially
dyed red, brown, blue and other colors,
as desired.
"A ne.w Atone now on the market as
"harlequin," the luster of whose blues
and reds changes like a cat's eye In
the dark, is merely crocldollte. or "blue
asbestos." whose fibers have been treat
ed with aniline dyes. Most of the
common' chalcedony seals worn as
watch charms have been artificially
colored, and a large amount of the so
called jade In our market Is merely
chalcedony dyed green. Most agate is
counterfeited by painting the natural,
colorless chalcedony with moss-like
patterns. I have done this for experi
mental purposes, and have found that
they fade in two or three years. In
deed, this same chalcedony a clouded,
milk-colored variety of quarts is used
in making eophlsticated turquoises and
carnelians.
Ki urinous Trade in Imitation Gems.
""Over a million gross of imitation
diamonds are being imported by this
country per year. By "imitation" I
mean an article which must not be
confused with the "artificial" gem
which, as I have said, is Identical or
nearly Identical with .the gem of na
ture. The cheapest form of the imitation
diamond is of glass: simply pressed
into the "brilliant' form and having
none of Its facets polished. The next
higher product is backed with 'pinch
beck.' a gilt made of copper, which In
creases the brilliancy about five fold.
The next grade Is the backed brilliant,
with every other faet of the top pol
ished, and a still higher product has
alternate facets, both top and bottom,
polished, t lie hack then being coated
with full silver foil. A better grade
still has all facets polished, top and
bottom, and the highest type of all is
of selected glass, free from coloring
matter, and whose inherent brilliancy
is such that no backing Is necessary.
AH of the facets of these are carefully
polished.
"These imitation gems are given ft
wide tange of hue by adding coloring
matter to the original melt of the
glass. In the better imitations the
glass Is made of powdered quartz, red
lead and potassium carbonate, or me
tallic oxide, etc.. In varying propor
tions according to the desired color.
Some Imitations Cost Jlore Than
' Orlgnals.
"A new imitation .emerald now on
the market displays flaws such as
commonly characterize the mined em
erald. Indeed, some imitation gems
cost more than do originals, two good
examples being the imitation rose
quartz and moonstone, and so far as
beauty Is concerned they are often
more attractive than the natural, ex
hibiting a very wide range of color.
But they are more easily scratched
than the natitral etones, and exposure
to foul air usually dims their bril
liancy. In fact, nearly all of the finest
grades of Imitation gems can be read
ily detected by their yielding to the
file and their inability to scratch
glass.
"Quite the newest and most inter
esting thing in this line, however, is
a very high - grade imitation gem
which actually does scratch glass
readily and does not yield to the file.
I have obtained four of these thus far,
one green and the others a delicate
pink. I have not yet obtained a suf
ficient quantity of this material to de
termine its character, but I suspect
that It Is largely powdered quartz
mixed with a small amount of alkali
in the fiux. These are very durable,
having the hardness sufficient for or
dinary wear, besides a fire and bril
liancy far superior to those of other
imitation stones.
"Beautiful and expensive imitation
pearls are made by coating glass
beads with a product made from the
scales of the "bleak,' a fish of the Bal
tic Sea, the desired color being finally
Imparted by the delicate use of dyes.
"The very latest product is the
Teckla pearl, made by a secret process
which I have not yet fathomed, and
which reproduces the twirls and
bumps of the baroque pearl."
Washington, D. C, June 13.
given by railways to foreigners has
aroused the traders. For instance, it
costs $10 to ship a ton of British meat
from Liverpool to London, but on ac
count of the rate agreements between
the railways and the steamship lines it
costs $6.25 to ship a ton of foreign
meat between the same two points. A
case quoted extensively in the British
press recently was that of a manufac
turer in Sheffield who was asked to bid
on an order for a large- quantity of
goods delivered in London in competi
tion with a German firm. He found that
the freight rate between Sheffield and
London would prevent him from obtain
ing the contract, and he had almost de
cided to give up the attempt to gain it,
when he learned that if he sent his
goods by rail to Hull, shipped them to
Germany and brought them back to
Hull and then sent them by train to
London the cost would be so much
lower that he could compete with the
German manufacturers. He based his
price on these rates and obtained the
contract.
It is estimated that if the govern
ment took over the railways and ran
them for the benefit of the whole peo
ple, money enough could be saved on
management to reduce the freight and
passenger rates substantially, and at
the same time Insure a better service.
A railway manager has declared that
100,000 of the 600,000 men employed on
the British railways are totally un
necessary and are only employed De
cause of the useless duplication of fa
cilities caused by competition. The ex
pense of 250 separate boards of direc
tors and of a host of higher officials
also could be saved.
Ribbons and passementeries to th vahll
ok SH',.000.000 were produced in 1901 at St.
JJUenns, prance.