222 A Book of Precious Stones
are
not natural rubies, even although produced from clippings of the same,
since the crystalline growth is a new one after the clippings have been
fused.
The
sapphire as well as its sister of the corundum family, the ruby, has
for years been the object of solicitude on the part of scientific
experimentalists, who would produce real sapphires by artificial
means; Mr. A. EL Petereit, of New York City, the well-known dealer in
gems and gem minerals, who purveys rarities in this line to collectors
the world over, and whose inventive genius is represented by more than
twenty-five patents, exhibited to the author a " reconstructed sapphire
" which, tested merely by a visual examination, rivalled natural
sapphires, that of the same colour and purity would be very costly
gems. Mr. Petereit's process is secret, and he modestly claims
success only to the degree of producing stones of a size that will cut
into small gems. Of the Petereit sapphires The Mineral Collector says:
We
are pleased to announce that the honour has fallen to an American to at
last manufacture a real reconstructed sapphire; successful in
hardness, colour, brilliancy, and transparency. Efforts have been made
in France, Germany, and other
