Ruby Gemstones - A Collection of Historical Articles on the Origins, Structure and Properties of the Ruby

THE RUBY.

The red sapphire or ruby is the most valuable of the corundum family, and when found of a good color, pure and brilliant, and in sizes of one carat and larger, it is much more valuable than a fine diamond of the same size.

Fine rubies larger than 1 1/2 to 2 carats are very rare, and when a fine stone from 3 to 5 carats is offered for sale, the price mounts into the thousands.

The color varies from the lightest rose tint to the deepest carmine; that color, however, which has the greatest value is known in commerce as pigeon’s blood, and is the color of arterial blood, or of the very centre of the red ray in the solar spectrum.

The imperfections in rubies, as in all corundums, consist largely of clouds, milky spots, and cracks. A perfect ruby is rarely met with, and a stone possessing brilliancy and the true color, even if slightly defective, is considered more valuable than an absolutely perfect ruby of an inferior color.

Rubies are found in Siam, Ceylon, Burmah, Brazil, Hindustan, Borneo, Sumatra, Australia, France, and Germany.

Where rubies and sapphires are met with it is said that gold is almost sure to be present.

Chemists have succeeded in producing minute crystals of rubies and sapphires which, under the microscope, presented the true crystallization of corundums, and upon being tested proved to be of the same hardness as rubies and sapphires; but these specimens were small, and cost very much more to produce than their commercial value.

Ruby spinels, garnets, hyacinths, red quartz, burnt Brazilian or rose topaz, and red tourmaline are sometimes passed off for the ruby.

The true ruby will scratch all of these stones readily, the spinel is lighter in specific gravity, and has generally a slight tinge of yellow, even in the most pronounced red specimens.

The ruby will turn green under the flames of a blow-pipe, but when cooled off, resumes its original color.

The garnet and topaz are easily scratched by the ruby, the hyacinth is heavier, and quartz and tourmaline lighter than the ruby. Some so-called reconstructed rubies, recently offered for sale, are of a very fine color, and closely resemble the Oriental gems.

The hardness and specific gravity are the same, but they differ in one very important point, namely: they lack the brilliancy of the true ruby. In addition to this lack of fire, a microscopical test discloses formations which will distinguish the manufactured from the natural stone.

THE RUBY.

THE ruby, the sapphire, the oriental topaz, the oriental emerald, the oriental amethyst, are pure crystallized alumina, and are all classed under the name of corundum. They are identical in every particular, differing only in colour.

Crystal of Corundum. (13).

The ruby is said to be tinted by the peroxide of iron, the sapphire by the protoxide, and the violet tint may possibly be produced by an admixture of manganese with the iron. They occur crystallized in variously terminated hexagonal prisms, and in rolled masses, and are generally found in beds of rivers, or associated with crystalline rocks.

The ruby or red sapphire is considered, next to the diamond, the most precious of all gems. When of a large size, good colour, and free from flaws, it exceeds even the diamond itself in value. Rubies are for the most part small, seldom exceeding eight or ten carats. The specific gravity is 3·9 to 4·1, its hardness superior to any known substance except diamond, being numbered 9 in Moh’s scale. It is composed of alumina, and coloured by traces of metallic oxides, chrome,