the
points of difference between reconstructed and genuine rubies, by
presenting some additional facts, and especially by reproducing two
illustrations made from enlarged photographs of reconstructed and
genuine rubies supplied by A. F. Kotler, of St. Petersburg:
On
careful examination, in the case of the artificial ruby, we notice at
once the typical concentric lines as well as the little bubbles
occurring in large numbers, which are always spherical, having, in
other words, the character of an air bubble in a melted mass. The
concentric fine lines, showing variations in the colour, were compared
at the time with the circular or spiral lines that result from the
string of a paste-like mass, leaving nothing to be desired as far as
plainness is concerned. A naturally formed genuine ruby also shows
spaces or enclosures, but these are more or less angular, being
bounded by crystalline surfaces, The angularity of these voids is,
moreover, determined by the entire crystalline structure of the natural
stone.
If, therefore, in the genuine ruby, the colour is unequally distributed, the colour stripes invariably assume a vertical direction, are never concentric as
in the artificial stone. We may also frequently note that the colour
does not run in one direction, but that colour stripes, often of
varying intensity, cross one another at obtuse angles; in other words,
correspond strictly with the crystalline structure of the grown stone.
We may reiterate
