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204 GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONES IN THE
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stance,
such as sugar, molasses, blood, etc., and then putting it into the
sulphuric acid, which chars the organic substance into dead black.
Anthracite,
one of the hard varieties of coal, is found in many places in eastern
Pennsylvania, but the variety used for ornaments is procured from
Mountain Top, near Glen Summit; at the Franklin Mine, in Ashley; the
Spring Tunnel Mine, the Summit Mine, and Nanticoke in Luzerne County.
It is used as jewelry, and for ornamental purposes is carved into
various trinkets, such as compass-cases, boots, hearts, anchors, and
other small charms. It is also turned into cups, saucers, vases,
candle-sticks, and paper-weights. The best work is done by a one-armed
man at Glen Summit. Anthracite, like jet, could be made into beads and
round ornaments to be used for scarf-pins, lace-pins, bracelets, and
similar articles. The objects made often retain a ridge or ridges of
the rough coal, while the other portions, being highly polished, form a
striking contrast. These articles are sold at Scranton, Wilkesbarre,
Pittston, Mauch Chunk, and the Summit Hill Station on the Switchback
RailÂway, from $2,500 to $3,000 being expended for them annually.
The
following minerals found in the United States, when fibrous or cut en
cabochon across the cleavages, will show the cat's-eye ray:
A
dark-brown, almost black, crystal of corundum from Ellijay Creek, Macon
County, N. C, when cut en cabochon, furnishes gems two-thirds of an
inch across, and showing the cat's-eye ray distinctly. The chrysoberyls
of Stow, Peru, and Canton, Me., would cut into inferior cat's-eyes. The
milky beryls found at Stoneham, Me., and Branchville, Conn., and some
of the North Carolina beryls, especially the fibrous, green, opaque
beryl from Alexander County, would furnish cat's-eyes, although not
very fine. The- so-called "Thetis' hairstone," described by Dr. Charles
T. Jackson, found at Cumberland, R. I., is really quartz cat's-eye with
acicular crystals of actinolite, and cat's-eyes of good quality have
recently been cut from it by Edwin Passmore, of Hope, R. I., one of
them nearly two-thirds of an inch long, and equal to many from Hoff,
Bavaria. Prof. Frederick A. Genth states that quartz
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