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by
pyramids. For use in jewelry or for purposes of ornament rock crystal
is cut, the form of cutting depending on the size of pieces that can be
obtained clear. /The favorite use for the largest pieces is
to cut them into spheres or balls. This was done even in the times of
the Romans, the aristocratic ladies of that day carrying the spheres in
summer for the sake of the coolness they afforded. The same custom
prevails among the Japanese at the present time, and the industry of
making the balls is extensively carried on in Japan. Balls from four to
six inches in diameter have a high value, both on account of the rarity
of finding so large, transparent and flawless pieces of quartz and
because of the labor of making them. / The smaller balls are somewhat
in fashion
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in
Europe and America at the present time as fortune tellers, the images
of objects seen through the spheres being supposed, according to a
fancy which has survived from an early period, to indicate the
observer's future.
A
superb example of carving in rock crystal is to be seen in the Morgan
collection of gems in the American Museum of Natural History of New
York City. This object is a globe four inches in diameter, on which are
outlined the continents and oceans, while a figure of Atlas beneath
supports the sphere.
Rock
crystal is also cut into seals, paper-weights, and other ornamental
objects, and the small pieces are used in enormous quantities for
cutting into stones for rings, pins, brooches, etc. These are often
known as "rhinestones," but also as "Lake George diamonds," "Brazilian
diamonds," and "diamonds" from whatever locality they come. These make
desirable stones as far as durablity is concerned, and are fairly
brilliant, but are not to be compared with the diamond in high
refractive powers. An attempt to pass off a rhinestone for a diamond
can be easily detected by the relative softness of the former, it being
possible to scratch it not only with diamond but also with corundum or
topaz. Rhinestones have little intrinsic value owing to the common
occurrence of the raw material. They do not therefore legiti-
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