l ::. 



JKWKI.LERY; JEV 



JEWS. 



Una 



moally bout 14 carats ; if meant to imply that the gold U pure, the 

 word U of course, deception. The announcement in sho|>- in Iowa, 

 " Fine gold chain*, weighing 5 sovereigns each, for 5/.." *i little leu 

 than a fraud. Indeed, u ordinary purchasers have no mean* of testing 

 the quality, there u scarcely any limit to the debasement of the metal 

 employed. Plate MM* not be below a certain standard ; jewellery may 

 be, and u in other words, pure, iteHimy, and tlaitJant gold have 

 definite meanings ; whereas, jbtt and jmetUen' gold have not It will 

 thiu be understood how gold chain*, and such like articles, vary so 

 much in value without varying much in appearance. By using a little 

 more silver in the alloy, the tint is heightened ; by using a little more 

 copper, it is deepened ; and thus the tint of pure, or nearly pure, gold 

 can be very nearly imitated. A troy ounce of absolutely pure gold is 

 worth </. 4*. lljl ; of iterlig gold (22 carats), SI. 17. lOi.d ; of new 

 Haudard gold (18 carats), SI. At (<!. ; of 12-carat gold, 21. 2.. 84</. ; of 

 8 carat gold, 1(. 8*. S^d. and so on ; therefore, the value of an ounce 

 of so-called gold is wholly indefinite, unless the ratio of alloy be 

 stated. Some jewellers' gold is u low as 3 carats, not worth more 

 than about 9. per ox. The makers of cheap chains, pencil-cases, 

 lockets, Ac., have discovered that if zinc be used instead of silver as an 

 alloy, the appearance is improved ; and thus the intrinsic value of the 

 gold is brought lower than ever. 



There are many compositions and many imitations of gold, used by 

 artificers. A liquid gold is formed from a solution of terchloride of 

 gold agitated with ether ; it is used for producing devices on steel, &c., 

 by leaving a coating of pure gold when dry. Hold bro*x, or gilding 

 powder, is often made on a small scale by grinding up gold-leaf with 

 honey. Dutck gold, also called pinchbeck and tombac, is made in 

 Holland and Prussia, by combining 11 parts of copper and 2 of zinc, 

 and rolling the compound into thin sheets. Grain gold consists of 

 nearly pure gold, employed in mating various preparations. A facti- 

 tious gold, consisting of copper 16, platinum 7, and zinc 1, presents 

 nearly the colour and appearance of gold of 16 carats. Motaic gold is 

 made from bi-sulphuret of tin, or from various brassy compounds of 

 metals. Messrs. Mourier and Valient, in 1857, introduced an arlijirial 

 gold for ornamental work, which is said to be fine-grained, malleable, 

 fusible for casting in a mould at a low heat, and susceptible of a good 

 polish. It consists of copper 100, tin 17, manganese 6, sal-ammoniac 

 4, quicklime 2, and tartar 9. 



The processes of jewellery, as a branch of goldsmith's work, need 

 no description ; they comprise small or fine examples of casting in 

 moulds, stamping with dies, wire-drawing, hammering and filing, bur- 

 nishing and lacquering, ic. 



JemUix'j. Jewelling, unlike jewellery, is a term wholly applied to 

 gems, and not likewise to working in gold. It is especially applied to 

 the jewelling of watches. This consists in setting diamonds, rubies, 

 sapphires, chrysolites, or other hard stones, in the frame-plates and 

 other parts of watches, in such a manner that the pivots of the watch 

 may act in holes made in these. stones. There are two kind* of jewelled 

 holes necessary in watches, one of which is merely a perforation through 

 the stone ; the other consists of a perforated piece, and a piece called 

 an end-piece. The province of the watch-jeweller is to select the 

 tones, and, except in the case of diamonds, to grind, polish, turn, drill, 

 and set them into the frames or other parts of the watch in such a 

 manner that the holes in the stones may correspond exactly in position 

 with holes previously made by the watch-finisher or escapement maker. 

 A bole trith'iut an end-piece is thus made. The hole in any piece to 

 be jewelled having been made in its proper place by the fin is 1- 

 piece is so fixed in a lathe by the jeweller that the hole shall be per- 

 fectly concentric with the centre of motion ; this hole is then enlarged 

 by turning, and afterwards so formed that a small circle of brass which 

 contains the stone, and which is called the setting, may have a cavity 

 to rest in, without the possibility of its going through the plate or 

 piece in which the hole has been made. After the setting has been 

 fitted to the cavity, and adjusted so as to be flush with the plate, two 

 smews are inserted in the plate so near to the cavity which contains the 

 setting that the edges of the screw-heads project a small distance over 

 the edge of the setting, and thereby secure it in its place. When n 

 hole ri/A an end-piece is required, the same process is adopted, but 

 two stones are required for each hole instead of one ; and the first, or 

 perforated stone with its setting is sunk into the cavity a sufficient 

 distance below the surface of the plate to allow of the reception of a 

 second setting, containing a stone which resembles in form a small 

 slice cut from a sphere about the size of a shot, its form being plano- 

 convex. The edge of this second setting is left flush with the plate or 

 piece in which the cavity is made ; and two screws being inserted, as in 

 the former rac, the two settings are secured at once. In the holes 

 already described the stones are secured in their brass settings in a 

 manner sommrhat similar to that in which opticians set many of their 

 glasses in telescopes : namely, by turning a place to receive the stone, 

 and laving a fine edge of brass, which is subsequently rubbed over 

 the edge of the stone with a burnisher. When a diamond end-piece 

 is used, it is usually set in steel, into which it is brazed, the diamond 

 being a stone which will allow of heat sufficient for that purpose. After 

 brazing, the stotl is turned into shape, polished, and blued. 



The apparatus necessary for the jeweller to carry on his business 

 consists of a small lathe ; small gravers for turning brass and steel ; a 

 quantity of rough diamond in fragments, technically termed bort; small 



mills or circular discs of meUl (usually copper) for grinding the stone* 

 into shape ; diamond-powder of various degrees of fineness for polishing ; 

 and turning tools nude by cementing small piece* of bort into .. 

 made in the end of small brans wires and fixed in proper handles. In 

 the preparation of a stone for a jewel-hole, it is necessary first to charge 

 a copper disc about the size of a penny piece, and out of w h: 

 frequently made, with bort; the null thus prepared is fixed unto the 

 mandrel of the lathe, which is put in motion by a band from a rather 

 large foot-wheel, the mill making from 6000 or 7000 to more than 

 20,000 revolutions in a minute, the Litter velocity being given only in 

 the act of polishing. The stone to be formed is then taken on the end 

 of one of the fingers of the right hand and applied to the surface of the 

 bort mill, which is kept constantly wet with water applied by the 

 fingers of the left hand, and in a few seconds a flat surface is produced 

 on a stone of the most irregular form ; the flat surface is then placed 

 next the finger, and a similar surface is produced parallel to the former, 

 until the stone is of such a thickness as is required. The stone is then 

 placed, by means of cement, on a small chuck in the lathe; an.l with 

 one of the before-mentioned bort tools is tunic J into the proper shape 

 for setting. The hole is also drilled either with a steel drill and di .: 

 powder and oil, or with a drill made of bort or small fragments of 

 diamond. The piece of stone, Or hole, as it is called, is also turned 

 with a hollow, or countersink, to receive the oil necessary for the 

 lubrication of the pivot. The atone is afterwards detached from the 

 lathe, and its flat or parallel surfaces polished by rubbing it on a piece 

 of plate-glass, previously charged with a small quantity of di . 

 powder and oil. When an end-piece is required the same process is 

 gone through, except that the drilling is omitted, and i 

 side of the stone is polished by using a piece of brass with a hallow 

 end to suit the convexity of the stone. The jeweller also makes use 

 of a small spirit-lamp to heat the cement when he applies it for the 

 purpose of securing the stones upon the chucks in the lathe. The 

 end-pieces, when real diamonds are used, are what are called rose 

 diamonds, and are procured froia Holland, where they are cut. 



It may here be added that small jewels, such as bits ol ruby, are 

 sometimes used for the nibs of pens ; and that diamonds, rubies, and 

 garnets, are made into exquisitely minute lenses for microscopes. 



JEW'S-HARP, a musical instrument of the simplest and rudest 

 kind, consisting of an iron frame, resembling in form the handle part 

 of an old-fashioned corkscrew, in the centre of the upper and wide part 

 of which is riveted at one end an elastic steel tongue, the extrci 

 which, at the free end, is bent outwards to a right angle, so as t 

 the finger eas.ly to strike it when the instrument is placed to the 

 mouth and firmly supported by the pressure of the ]> 

 of the frame against the teeth. 



Mr. Wheatstone has shown that the sounds of the Jew's-harp ; 

 de]M>nd on the reciprocation of columns of air in the mouth of th 

 former, and that these sounds are perfectly identical with the multiples 

 of the original vibrations of the instrument. Hence its scale must 

 necessarily be very incomplete ; but by employing two or more instru- 

 ments the deficiencies ore supplied. Some years ago, :n 

 foreigner, M. Kulenstein, exhibited in London, at the Uoyal 

 and afterwards at various concerts, his very extraordinary talent on 

 the Jew's-harp. He used sixteen instruments of different sizes, and 

 was thus enabled to modulate into every key, and to produce 

 not only original, but musical and agreeable. 



.1 K \VS ('louSeuoi and Judai in Qreek and Latin, Jdiudim in Hebrew), 

 in its widest acceptation, is used as synonymous with Hebrews, or 

 Israelites, but in a more restricted sense it means the inhabitants of 

 the kingdom of Judaea as it existed in the time of Jesus Christ, and 

 whose descendants are now scattered over all the world. The ! 

 of this people previous to the time of Christ Is contained in t 

 Testament and in Josephus, and need not be repeated here. The 

 resistance made by the Jews to the power of Home resulted, first, in 

 the dominion of the Asmonean princes, of whom an account will be 

 found under ASMOXKANS, in the Biou. lliv.; and, later, in their having 

 been forced by tyranny into rebellion, in the destruction of the T 

 by Titus. The Jews then became a dispersed people; anil, th. 

 from about the time of the birth of Our Saviour we give a slight sketch 

 of their history. It has to bo observed, however, that the 

 the Jews had undergone a considerable change durin 

 captivity. They had become more exclusively attache* I to tlnir 

 country and their lawn, and we hear no more of their ]ironeness to 

 idolatry after that epoch, as in former times. They strictly > 

 intenruvrriage with foreigners, and assumed in every ra*pe< t 

 unsocial spirit towards all except their own community for whieh they 

 have been so often reproached. Adversity had soured th' u D 

 while the expectations of a Messiah who was announced by their 

 prophets roused the national pride. The doctrine of the imm< 

 of the soul, which is not mentioned in the Mosaic law, was also 

 introduced, especially among the great sect of the Chasadim, or 

 Pharisees. 



The lost of the Asmou&an dynasty was put to death by Herod, son 

 of Antinater the Idumtean, who, with the support of the Romans, 

 became king of Judsoa B.C. 38. | HI:IIOI> IHK QUEAT, in Bioo. Div.] 

 He died in the same year that Christ was born, although in the com- 

 mon chronology the birth of Christ is placed four years later. \\ .1 h 

 Herod the independence of Judeca may be said to have expired. 



