PRECIOUS AND ORNAMENTAL STONES AND DIAMOND CUTTING.1

PRECIOUS AND ORNAMENTAL STONES AND DIAMOND CUTTING.¹

By GEORGE FREDERICK KUNZ.

The statistics of this report are divided into two sections: First, the discoveries and finds of precious stones in the United States and the mineral specimens sold for museums and private collections or for bric-a-brac purposes; second, the diamond cutting industry.

DISCOVERIES OF PRECIOUS STONES.

Up to the present time there has been very little mining for precious or semi-precious stones in the United States, and then only at irregular periods. It has been carried on during the past few years at Paris, Maine; near Los Cerrillos, New Mexico; in Alexander County, North Carolina, from 1881 until 1888; and on the Missouri River near Helena, Montana, since the beginning of 1890. True beryls and garnets have been frequently found as a by-product in the mining of mica, especially in Virginia and North Carolina. Some gems, such as the chlorastrolite, thomsonite, and agates of Lake Superior, are gathered on beaches, where they have fallen from rock which has gradually disintegrated by weathering and wave action.

Diamond.—A very limited number of diamonds have been found in the United States. They are met with in well-defined districts of California, North Carolina, Georgia, and recently in Wisconsin, but up to the present time the discoveries have been rare and purely accidental.

Sapphire.—Of the corundum gems (sapphire, ruby, and other colored varieties), no sapphires of fine blue color and no rubies of fine red color have been found. The only locality which has been at all prolific is the placer ground between Ruby and Eldorado bars, on the Missouri River, sixteen miles east of Helena, Montana. Here sapphires are found in glacial auriferous gravels while sluicing for gold, and until now have been considered only a by-product. Up to the present time they have never been systematically mined. In 1889 one company took the option on four thousand acres of the river banks, and several smaller companies have since been formed with a view of mining for these gems alone or in connection with gold. The colors of the gems obtained, although beautiful and interesting, are not the standard blue or red shades generally demanded by the public.

At Corundum Hill, Macon County, North Carolina, about one hundred gems have been found during the last twenty years, some of good blue color and some of good red color, but none exceeding $100 in value, and none within the past ten years.

Beryl Gems.—Of the beryl gems (emerald, aquamarine, and yellow beryl) the emerald has been mined to some extent at Stony Point in Alexander County, North Carolina, and has also been obtained at two other places in the county. Nearly everything found has come from the Emerald and Hiddenite mines, where during the past decade emeralds have been mined and cut into gems to the value of $1,000, and also sold as mineralogical specimens to the value of $3,000; lithia emerald, or hiddenite, to be cut into gems, $8,500, and for mineralogical specimens, $1,500; rutile, cut and sold as gems, $150, and as specimens, $50; and beryl, cut and sold as gems, $50.

At an altitude of 14,000 feet, on Mount Antero, Colorado, during the last three years, material has been found which has afforded $1,000 worth of cut beryls. At Stoneham, Maine, about $1,500 worth of fine aquamarine has been found, which was cut into gems.

At New Milford, Connecticut, a property was extensively worked from October, 1885, to May, 1886, for mica and beryl. The beryls were yellow, green, blue, and white in color, the former being sold under the name of "golden beryl." No work has been done at the mine since then. In 1886 and 1887 there were about four thousand stones cut and sold for some $15,000, the cutting of which cost about $3,000.

Turquoise.—This mineral, which was worked by the Aztecs before the advent of the Spaniards, and since then by the Pueblo Indians, and largely used by them for ornament and as an article of exchange, is now systematically mined near Los Cerrillos, New Mexico. Its color is blue, and its hardness is fully equal to that of the Persian, or slightly greater, owing to impurities, but it lacks the softness of color belonging to the Persian turquoise.

From time immemorial this material has been rudely mined by the Indians. Their method is to pour cold water on the rocks after previously heating them by fires built against them. This process generally deteriorates the color of the stone to some extent, tending to change it to a green. The Indians barter turquoise with the Navajo, Apache, Zuni, San Felipe, and other New Mexican tribes for their baskets, blankets, silver ornaments, and ponies.

Garnet and Olivine (Peridot).—The finest garnets and nearly all the peridots found in the United States are obtained in the Navajo Nation, in the northwestern part of New Mexico and the northeastern part of Arizona, where they are collected from ant hills and scorpion nests by Indians and by the soldiers stationed at adjacent forts. Generally these gems are traded for stores to the Indians at Gallup, Fort Defiance, Fort Wingate, etc., who in turn send them to large cities in the East in parcels weighing from half an ounce to thirty or forty pounds each. These garnets, which are locally known as Arizona and New Mexico rubies, are the finest in the world, rivaling those from the Cape of Good Hope. Fine gems weighing from two to three carats each and upward when cut are not uncommon. The peridots found associated with garnets are generally four or five times as large, and from their pitted and irregular appearance have been called "Job's tears." They can be cut into gems weighing three to four carats each, but do not approach those from the Levant either in size or color.

Gold Quartz.—Since the discovery of gold in California, compact gold quartz has been extensively used in the manufacture of jewelry, at one time to the amount of $100,000 per annum. At present, however, the demand has so much decreased that only from five to ten thousand dollars' worth is annually used for this purpose.

In addition to the minerals used for cabinet specimens, etc., there is a great demand for making clocks, inkstands, and other objects.

Quartz.—During the year 1887 about half a ton of rock crystal, in pieces weighing from a few pounds up to one hundred pounds each, was found in decomposing granite in Chestnut Hill township, Ashe County, North Carolina. One mass of twenty and one-half pounds was absolutely pellucid, and more or less of the material was used for art purposes. This lot of crystal was valued at $1,000.

In Arkansas, especially in Garland and Montgomery Counties, rock crystals are found lining cavities of variable size, and in one instance thirty tons of crystals were found in a single cavity. These crystals are mined by the farmers in their spare time and sold in the streets of Hot Springs, their value amounting to some $10,000 annually. Several thousand dollars' worth are cut from quartz into charms and faceted stones, although ten times that amount of paste or imitation diamonds are sold as Arkansas crystals.

Rose quartz is found in the granitic veins of Oxford County, Maine, and in 1887, 1888, and 1889 probably $500 worth of this material was procured and worked into small spheres, dishes, charms, and other ornamental objects.

The well-known agatized and jasperized wood of Arizona is so much richer in color than that obtained from any other known locality that, since the problem of cutting and polishing the large sections used for table tops and other ornamental purposes was solved, fully $50,000 worth of the rough material has been gathered and over $100,000 worth of it has been cut and polished. This wood, which was a very prominent feature at the Paris Exposition, promises to become one of our richest ornamental materials.

Chlorastrolite in pebbles is principally found on the inside and outside shores of Rock Harbor, a harbor about eight miles in length on the east end of Isle Royale, Lake Superior, where they occur from the size of a pin head to, rarely, the size of a pigeon's egg. When larger than a pea they frequently are very poor in form or are hollow in fact, and unfit for cutting into gems. They are collected in a desultory manner, and are sold by jewelers of Duluth, Petoskey, and other cities, principally to visitors. The annual sale ranges from $200 to $1,000.

Thomsonite in pebbles occurs with the chlorastrolite at Isle Royal, but finer stones are found on the beach at Grand Marais, Cook County, Minnesota. Like the chlorastrolites, they result from the weathering of the amygdaloid rock, in which they occur as small nodules, and in the same manner are sold by jewelers in the cities bordering on Lake Superior to the extent of $200 to $1,000 worth annually.

THE DIAMOND CUTTING INDUSTRY.

In New York there are sixteen firms engaged in cutting and recutting diamonds, and in Massachusetts there are three. Cutting has also been carried on at times in Pennsylvania and Illinois, but has been discontinued. The firms that were fully employed were generally the larger ones, whose business consisted chiefly in repairing chipped or imperfectly cut stones or in recutting stones previously cut abroad, which, owing to the superior workmanship in command here, could be recut at a profit, or in recutting very valuable diamonds when it was desired, with the certainty that the work could be done under their own supervision, thus guarding against any possible loss by exchange for inferior stones.

The industry employed 236 persons, of whom 69 were under age, who received $148,114 in wages. Of the 19 establishments, 16 used steam power. The power is usually rented. Foot power is only used in one establishment. Three of the firms are engaged in shaping black diamonds for mechanical purposes, for glass cutters and engravers, or in the manufacture of watch jewels.

The diamonds used in this industry are all imported, for, as already stated, diamonds are only occasionally found in the United States.

The importation of rough and uncut diamonds in 1880 amounted to $129,207, in 1889 to $250,187, and the total for the decade was $3,133,529, while in 1883 there were imported $443,996 worth, showing that there was 94 per cent. more cutting done in 1889 than 1880, but markedly more in 1882 and 1883. This large increase of importation is due to the fact that in the years 1882 to 1885 a number of our jewelers opened diamond cutting establishments, but the cutting has not been profitably carried on in this country on a scale large enough to justify branch houses in London, the great market for rough diamonds, where advantage can be taken of every fluctuation in the market and large parcels purchased, which can be cut immediately and converted into cash; for nothing is bought and sold on a closer margin than rough diamonds.

There has been a remarkable increase in the importation of precious stones in this country in the last ten years. The imports from 1870 to 1879, inclusive, amounted to $26,698,203, whereas from 1880 to 1889, inclusive, the imports amounted to $87,198,114, more than three times as much as were imported the previous decade.

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Abstract from Census Bulletin No. 49, April, 1891.