but
found that a similar patent had been issued nearly fifty years earlier
to a resident of New York. Though thus unable to obtain the monopoly,
they undertook the manufacture of jewelers' quartz, but the venture
proved so unsatisfactory that they soon abandoned it.
Prase
is found, always crystallized, at various limonite deposits on Staten
Island, N. Y. As specimens the mineral is very good, occurring in
groups of crystals often 8 to 10 inches across, although the crystals
themselves are rarely over 1/2 inch long and 1/8 inch in diameter, and
of no gem value. The color is generally a dark leek-green. William P.
Blake mentions a greenish-tinged quartz, resembling datolite in color,
from the French lode, Eureka District, Cal. Hoffmann, in the "
Mineralogy of Nevada," mentions the occurrence of prase in crystals at
Reese River, San Antonio, and occasionally on the mountains near Silver
Peak. A translucent leek-green variety of chalcedony and quartz occurs
in the syenitic range of the Lehigh, especially at the allanite
locality, five miles east of Bethlehem, Pa. Prase is found at Blue
Mill, Delaware County, in doubly-terminated crystals, and in curious
crossings and rosettes, often several inches across ; also in inferior
specimens near Dismal Run, Delaware County. Very fine specimens of
massive green quartz occur in Bucks County; in Delaware County at
Radnor; and in East Bradford Township, Chester County. At none of these
localities is it of any value as a gem.
Rose
quartz occurs in large masses at Albany and Paris, Me. ; Southbury,
Conn. ; and at many other places in the United States, but as yet it
has not been used in the arts or as a gem. At Stow, Albany, Paris, and
a number of other localities in Maine, the veins of quartz shade from
white—transparent and opalescent, resembling hyaline quartz, often
without any imperfections—through faintly tinted pink and salmon into
a rich rose color, thus forming a beautiful series of tints for gems or
for ornamental stone-work. Specimens of this rose quartz, when cut into
double cabochons, or sphere-shaped objects, distinctly show the asteria
effect, similar to the star sapphire, if viewed by sunlight or
artificial light, a peculiarity which has also been observed in
specimens obtained from a number of other localities. Pos-
Flickr
Stumbleupon
Scribd
