171 



The blue color was obtained only after long study and experimenta- 

 tion on tlie part of Yerneuil and an American assistant, Mr. I. H. Levin. 

 Tliey foimd that the attempt to blend cubalt as a colorant failed, the cobalt 

 volatiliziniir or else floating out when the boule cooled. Picard. in 1007, 

 and Louis Paris, in l'.X)8, succeeded in getting boules of a fine blue color 

 b.v blending magnesia or lime with the alumina and adding cobalt. They 

 were, however, not true sapphires. Snme of these boules were sent to a 

 friend of mine, an enthusiastic gem collector, Mv. Wm. II. Huse, of Manches- 

 ter, N. H., and at his reipiest I tested them and found that they were too 

 low in specific gravity, too soft, and their system of crystallization was the 

 regular or cubic system. 'J'hey were singly refracting and showed no 

 diehroism. They were, in fact, artificial spinels. Their color also was 

 of too piercing a blue. This was afterwards remedied by adding a trace 

 of chromium o.xide, but then the color as seen by artificial light was 

 unnatural. 



In January, 1910, Yerneuil and Levin succeeded in obtaining true sap- 

 phires by adding to 98% of alumina 'I^f of a mixture of ferric oxide and 

 titanium oxide and keeping the boule in a reducing atmosi)here. A paper 

 in regard to tliese boules \A'as read by ^'elneuil in 1910 before the French 

 Academy. It quoted M. Wyrouboff, who examined tliem before they were 

 submitted to the Academy. He said of them : "They take the form of 

 a single crystal which is uniaxial, optically negative and little birefractive. 

 conse(iuently having all the optical properties of the natural sapphires. 

 Furthermore, their composition and crystalline construction must evidently 

 lead to the conclusion that these stones are in every other resppct iden- 

 tical with the natural s.-ipphires. They even show the parti-colored effects 

 like the natural stones." 



In connection with this report of Wyrouboff I will quote here the report 

 of Bauer, the great German gem expert, on the synthetic ruby boules. 

 In a paper read before the German Chemical Society of Frankfort, A. M. 

 Bauer saj^s: "Tlie ruby bulli, in sjilte of its round shape, shows a true 

 crystalline formation. In specific weight, in hardness, as well as in 

 all the optical properties, it is identical with the natural stone; in color 

 and brilliancy it vies with th" best specimens from the Orient." 



Some of tJie new l)lue sa))phires were sent to this country and were 

 submitted to Prof. Alfred jNIoses of Columbia UniA^ersity, who says : "The 

 chemical analysis shows the material submitted to be nearly pure alumina 

 with, however, a measurable quantity of titanic oxide. The crystallo- 



