1886.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 271 



labor-saving tools, for tliere the workman can often trace back 

 his pedigree, in unbroken line, to twenty generations. The 

 crystal is first roughly dressed into proper pieces for forming 

 crystal balls or other objects. If the piece is too long to be formed 

 into a ball, it is broken into several pieces. If it is a large com- 

 pact mass, it is only chijiped on tlie edges. In order to break 

 large, thick crystals, a nick is often hammered round them, and 

 then a sharp, well-directed blow will make a clean break. The 

 masses, whether large or small, are gradually rounded by careful 

 chipping with a small steel hammer, this rude tool alone suflBcing 

 to make a perfect sphere. The workmen thoroughly understand 

 the fracturing of the crystals and apply either chipping or ham- 

 mering, as the case may require. 



The crystal then being in a spherical form, but with its ex- 

 terior rough, is handed to a grinder, who has a number of cylin- 

 drical pieces of cast iron, about 1 foot in length, and resembling 

 reversed graters, which are of different thickness and variously 

 curved according to the size of the crystal to be ground. The 

 grinding material consists of powdered garnet and emery, fine or 

 coarse, as required. Water is used plentifully, and the ball is 

 dexterously kept turning, so that the surface is made perfectly 

 spherical. In some cases, the ball is fixed in the end of a bamboo 

 tube and kept whirling in the hand of the workman until it is 

 smooth. The perfect polish desired can only be produced by pa- 

 tient rubbing, first with the tip of a bamboo cane and then with 

 the hand, dipped in rouge (hematite), which gives a splendid 

 lustrous surface. The perfect tama (jewel ball) is then ready for 

 its wavy throne of bronze or its nest of satin. A favorite native 

 proverb is: "Until polished, the precious gem has no splendor." 



This method of manufacture is very laborious and slow, and, 

 were it not for the cheapness of labor, it would be a very serious 

 item. 



In Germany, France, and the United States, the balls are not 

 made by hand as in Japan, but the piece of crystal is placed 

 in a semi-circular groove, worn in huge grindstones either by a 

 piece of flint or a crystal pebble, and held there while the stone is 

 revolved, until, in a short time, it assumes a shape the exact 

 counterpart of the semi-circular groove in the grindstone. Care 

 is required during this operation not to allow the wheel to become 

 dry, but to keep it constantly Avet, since the friction will soon 

 heat the crystal, and, if water is then put on the wheel, the crystal 

 is liable to crack, just as it does if it is heated and then dipped 

 into water. 



The polishing is then done on a wooden wheel with tripoli, or 

 else on a leather buff with tripoli or hematite. By this method, 

 which has been in use from the latter part of the sixteenth 



