A high degree of hardness is an essential property of a gem-stone, for however beautiful and brilliant a mineral may be it is useless to the jeweller if it lack sufficient hardness to withstand the abrasion to which articles of personal Hardness. decoration are necessarily subjected. Even if not definitely scratched, the polished stone becomes dull by wear. Imitations in paste may be extremely brilliant, but being comparatively soft they soon lose lustre when rubbed. In the article [Mineralogy] it is explained that the varying degrees of hardness are registered on a definite scale. The exceptional hardness of the diamond gives it a supreme position in this scale, and to it the arbitrary value of 10 has been assigned. The corundum gem-stones (ruby and sapphire), though greatly inferior in hardness to the diamond, come next, with the value of 9; and it is notable that the sapphire is usually rather harder than ruby. Then follows the topaz, which, with spinel and chrysoberyl, has a hardness of 8; whilst quartz falls a degree lower. Most gem-stones are harder than quartz, though precious opal, turquoise, moonstone and sphene are inferior to it in hardness. Those stones which are softer than quartz have been called by jewellers demi-dures. To test the hardness of a cut stone, one of its sharp edges may be drawn, with firm pressure, across the smooth surface of a piece of quartz; if it leave a scratch its hardness must be above 7. The stone is then applied in like manner to a fragment of topaz, preferably a cleavage-piece, and if it fail to leave a distinct scratch its hardness is between 7 and 8, whereas if the topaz be scratched it is above 8. An expert may obtain a fair idea of hardness by gently passing the stone over a fine steel file, and observing the feel of the stone and the grating sound which it emits. If a stone be scratched by a steel knife its hardness is below 6. The degree of hardness of a precious stone is soon ascertained by the lapidary when cutting it.
Gem-stones differ markedly among themselves in density or specific weight; and although this is a character which does not directly affect their value for ornamental purposes, it furnishes by its constancy an important means of distinguishing one stone Specific gravity. from another. Moreover, it is a character very easily determined and can be applied to cut stones without injury. The relative weightiness of a stone is called its specific gravity, and is often abbreviated as S.G. The number given in the description of a mineral as S.G. shows how many times the stone is heavier than an equal bulk of the standard with which it is compared, the standard being distilled water at 4° C. If, for example, the S.G. of diamond is said to be 3.5 it means that a diamond weighs 3½ times as much as a mass of water of the same bulk. The various methods of determining specific gravity are described under [Density]. The readiest method of testing precious stones, especially when cut, is to use dense liquids. Suppose it be required to determine whether a yellow stone be true topaz or false topaz (quartz), it is merely necessary to drop the stone into a liquid made up to the specific gravity of about 3; and since topaz has S.G. of 3.5 it sinks in this medium, but as quartz has S.G. of only 2.65 it floats. The densest gem-stone is zircon, which may have S.G. as high as 4.7, whilst the lowest is opal with S.G. 2.2. Amber, it is true, is lighter still, being scarcely denser than water, but this substance can hardly be called a gem.
Although the great majority of precious stones occur crystallized, the characteristic form is destroyed in cutting. The crystal-forms of the several stones are noticed under their respective headings, and the subject is discussed Crystalline form and cleavage. fully under [Crystallography]. A few substances used as ornamental stones—like opal, turquoise, obsidian and amber—are amorphous or without crystalline form; whilst others, like the various stones of the chalcedony-group, display no obvious crystal-characters, but are seen under the microscope to possess a crystalline structure. Gem-stones are frequently found in gravels or other detrital deposits, where they occur as rolled crystals or fragments of crystals, and in many cases have been reduced to the form of pebbles. By the disintegration of the rock which formed the original matrix, its constituent minerals were set free, and whilst many of them were worn away by long-continued attrition, the gem-stones survived by virtue of their superior hardness.
Many crystallized gem-stones exhibit cleavage, or a tendency to split in definite directions. The lapidary recognizes a “grain” in the stone. When the cleavage is perfect, as in topaz, it may render the working of the stone difficult, and produce incipient cracks in the cut gem. Flaws due to the cleavage planes are called “feathers.” The octahedral cleavage of the diamond is taken advantage of in dressing the stone before cutting it. The cutting of gem-stones is explained under [Lapidary].
The beauty and consequent value of gems depend mainly on their colour. Some stones, it is true, are valued for entire absence of colour, as diamonds of pure “water.” Certain kinds of sapphire and topaz, too, are “water Colour. clear,” as also is pure rock-crystal; but in most stones colour is a prime element of attraction. The colour, however, is not generally an essential property of the mineral, but is due to the presence of foreign pigmentary matter, often in very small proportion and in some cases eluding determination. Thus, corundum when pure is colourless, but the presence of traces of certain mineral substances imparts to it not only the red of ruby and the blue of sapphire, but almost every other colour. The tinctorial matter may be distributed either uniformly throughout the stone or in regular zones, or in quite irregular patches. A tourmaline, for instance, may be red at one end of a prismatic crystal and green at the other extremity, or the colour may be so disposed that in transverse section the centre will be red and the outer zone green. A beryl may be yellow and green in the same crystal. Sapphire, again, is often parti-coloured, one portion of the stone being blue and other portions white or yellow; and the skilful lapidary, in cutting the stone, will take advantage of the blue portion. The character of the pigment is in many cases not definitely known. It by no means follows that the material capable of imparting a certain tint to glass is identical with that which naturally colours a stone of the same tint; thus a glass of sapphire-blue may be obtained by the use of cobalt, yet cobalt has not been detected in the sapphire. Probably the most common mineral pigments are compounds of iron, manganese, copper and chromium. If the colour of the stone be discharged by heat, an organic pigment is presumably present. Some ornamental stones change their colour, or even lose it, on exposure to sunlight and air: such is the case with rose-quartz, chrysoprase and certain kinds of topaz and turquoise. Exposure to heat alters the colour of some stones so readily that the change is taken advantage of commercially; thus, sherry-yellow topaz may be rendered pink, smoky and amethystine quartz may become yellow, and coloured zircons may be decolorized, so as to resemble diamonds.
The colours of some gem-stones are greatly affected by radioactivity, and Prof. F. Bordas has found this to be particularly the case with sapphire. From his experiments he believes that yellow corundum, or oriental topaz, may have been formed from blue corundum under the influence of radioactive substances present in the soil in which the sapphire was embedded. Different shades of colour may be presented by different stones of the same species; and it was formerly the custom of lapidaries to regard the darker stones as masculine and the paler as feminine, a full blue sapphire, for instance, being called a “male sapphire” and a delicate blue stone a “female sapphire.” It is notable that some stones appear to change colour by candle-light and by most other artificial means of illumination; some amethysts thus become inky, and certain sapphires acquire a murky tint, whilst others become amethystine. For an example of a remarkable change of this character, see [Alexandrite].
As the optical properties of minerals are fully explained under [Crystallography], little need be said here on this subject. The brilliancy of a cut stone depends on the amount of light reflected from its faces; and in the form Refraction. known as the “brilliant” the gem is so cut that much of the incident light, after entering the stone and suffering refraction, is totally reflected from the facets at the back. The amount of light which is thus returned to the eye of the observer will be greater as the angle of total reflection, or critical angle, is smaller, but this angle will be small if the refractive power of the stone is great, so that the brilliancy directly depends on the refractivity. The diamond has the highest refractive index of any gem-stone (2.42). Jargoon, or zircon, has also a high index (mean 1.95), and sphene, which is occasionally cut as a gem, is likewise very notable in this respect. The index of refraction generally bears a relation to the specific gravity of the stone, the heaviest gems having the highest indices, though a few minerals offer exceptions. The refractive index, which is thus a very important character in the scientific discrimination of gem-stones, may be conveniently determined, within certain limits, by means of the refractometer devised by Dr G.F. Herbert Smith. This instrument is an improved form of the total reflectometer, in which the refractive power of a given substance is determined by the method of total reflection. It may be used for indices ranging from 1.300 to 1.775, and may be applied to faceted stones without removal from their settings.
The play of prismatic colours exhibited by a cut stone, often known as its “fire,” is due to the decomposition of the white light which enters the stone, and is returned, by internal reflection, after resolution in to its coloured components. Dispersion. This decomposition depends on the dispersive power of the substance. The exceptional beauty of the fiery flashes in the diamond is due to its high dispersion, in other words, to the difference between the refractive indices for the red rays and the violet rays at the extremities of the spectrum. The peculiar lustre exhibited by the diamond is called adamantine, and is shared to some extent by certain other stones which have a high refractive index and high dispersion, such as zircon.
The use of the spectroscope may be valuable in discriminating between certain precious stones. It was shown by Sir A.H. Church that almandine garnet and zircon when simply Spectroscopic characters. viewed through this instrument give, under proper conditions, characteristic absorption spectra, due to the light reflected from the stone having penetrated to some extent into the substance of the mineral and suffered absorption. It is sometimes useful to examine the behaviour of a stone under the action of the Röntgen rays.
A very useful means of discriminating between certain stones is found in their dichroism, or, to use a more general term, pleochroism. Neither amorphous minerals, like opal, nor minerals crystallizing in the cubic system, like Dichroism. spinel and garnet, possess this property; but coloured minerals which are doubly refracting may show different colours, when properly examined, in different directions. Occasionally this is so marked as to be detected by the naked eye, as in iolite or dichroite, but usually the stone needs to be examined with such an instrument as Haidinger’s dichroscope (see [Crystallography]). It must be remembered that in the direction of an optic axis the two images will be of the same colour in all positions of the instrument, and it is therefore necessary before reaching a definite conclusion to turn the stone about and examine it in various directions. The use of the dichroscope is so simple that it can be applied by any one to the examination of a cut stone, but there are other means of determining the nature of a stone by its optical properties available to the mineralogist and more suitably discussed under [Crystallography].