X-RAY MAGIC

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 283, 24 August 1920, Page 5

X-RAY MAGIC

SAPPHIRES TRANSFORMED INTO RUBIES. Discoveries concerning the action of radium on gems by which sapphires can be transformed into rubies and the ordinary precious 6tones can bo invested with the brilliance of the diamond are reported by Dr. T. Coke Squance, of Sunderland, whose researches in radiotherapeutics have been of the greatest value. "I have succeeded in transforming a sapphire of faint pink hue into a beautiful ruby," 6tates Dr. Squance, "and during the process the lustre was increased to such an extent that the stone has almost the brilliance of the diamond. "While experimenting with X-rays nuo. radium in tho dark, continued Dr. Squance, "I noticed that a diamond in a ring I had laid down near the apparatus gCowed with a beautiful greeu; This led me to experiment in phosphorescence, and I discovered that both X-rays and radium make the diamond glow with'this green light, and besides tho diamond only cne other substance so bemineral called kunzite, fonnd in America, which glows with a lovely ruby hue. I submitted a sapphire to the radium rays for a long period, and it turned to a glorious red. In fact, it had become a ruby, for the sapphire and ruby are chemically the same. I have simi/.nrly transformed other stones, a faint green sapphire, for instance, turning into an Oriental emerald."