AMBER: SUBSTITUTES 551 



of the celluloid industry in North America, and, finally, partly by the use of artificially 

 pressed amber in place of large pieces of natural occurrence. It may be mentioned here 

 that the largest piece of amber yet found weighed 9'7 kilograms (21 J pounds). It is of a 

 very beautiful bastard colour and is valued at df 1500. It was found in 1860 at Cammin, 

 in Pomerania, and is now preserved in the Museum fiir Naturkunde at Berlin. 



Imitation axu Coixtehfeit Ajibek. — The legitimate trade in amber suffers to a 

 considerable extent by the substitution of cheap imitations for genuine amber. These 

 imitations are sometimes more, sometimes less, clever, but can always be detected by the 

 application of a few simple tests. 



The difFei'ence between genuine amber and an imitation substance is usually apparent 

 to a practised eye at a glance. This is specially the case with bastard amber, the colour of 

 the turbid portions being so soft and pure, and passing so gradually and imperceptibly into 

 the clear amber inter laminated with it, that the general appearance of the stone can never 

 be reproduced in an imitation. 



If, however, mere inspection is not sufficient to determine the nature of a doubtful 

 specimen, it must be subjected to some or all of the tests described below under the 

 different imitation substances. 



The clumsiest imitation of amber is that made of yellow glass. This, which is 

 usually made in imitation of clear amber, is now scarcely ever used for smokers' requisites, 

 but is manufactured into beads, large niunbers of which are sold, for the most part in 

 China, as amber beads. This glass imitation of amber can be distinguished by the fact 

 that it feels cold to the touch, by its greater hardness and greater specific gravity, and by 

 the glassy conchoidal fracture which is distinctly visible at places where splinters have 

 broken off the edge. 



Celluloid, which latterly has found such an extensive and varied application, can be 

 manufactured to resemble very closely many kinds of amber. Imitation amber of celluloid 

 has been called " ambre antique." The use of this substance for articles, such as the 

 mouthpieces of cigar-holders, can usually be detected by the fact that they have been 

 moulded, not turned or ground, to the desired form. Moreover, in the imitation substance 

 the alternating stripes of clear and cloudy material are sharply defined, this sharpness 

 never being seen in cloudy varieties of genuine amljer. When the imitation substance is 

 rubbed a smell of camphor becomes perceptible, but very little electricity is developed. 

 Again, with a knife, parings may be cut off celluloid, but genuine amber gives a powder 

 ^\hen cut. The parings adhere to a hot platinum wire and take fire, flaring up with a 

 bright flame and with the evolution of an acid smell. Amber, owing to its higher melting- 

 point, does not adhere to a hot platinum wire, and it burns slowly, giving off a characteristic 

 aromatic odour. Celluloid is quickly attacked by sulphuric ether, in which it dissolves, 

 while amber may lie in this liquid for a quarter of an hour without sustaining any 

 serious damage. 



The extremely inflammable nature of celluloid cannot be too often insisted upon, and 

 its use for smokers' requisites must be strongly deprecated. Although the inflammability 

 of celluloid is often denied by the manufacturers, yet the fact remains, and all attempts to 

 render it uninflammable have been as yet unsuccessful. 



Amber differs from the other resins, which are frequently substituted for it, in 

 possessing a higher melting-point, greater hardness, slighter solubility in alcohol, ether, and 

 similar liquids, as well as in the presence of succinic acid as a constituent, and the evolution 

 of a characteristic odour when rubbed or burnt. 



Of these resins the most important is copal, which is often dug out of the earth, and 



