THE ORIENTAL RUBY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 537, 29 January 1913, Page 2

THE ORIENTAL RUBY.

THE MOST VALUABLE JEWEL IN THE WORLD. Ask nine people out of ten which is the most valuable precious stone, and they will say the diamond. The nine would be quite wrong. The Oriental ruby far transcends the diamond in value, weight for weight. A ruby weighing five carats may be worth ten times more than a five carat diamond. A few years ago a ruby of eleven carats was sold in the London market for £7,000 ; whereas a diamond of eleven carats would not be worth more than £I,OOO at the utmost.

The Oriental ruby is a variety of a substance called "corundum," which is chemically known as an oxide of aluminium. Just as the diamond is a foTm of carbon, like coal, so the ruby is a form of silicate, the basis of aU sorts of clay, like common alum. Sapphires, topazes, emeralds, and amethysts are also the offspring of corundum.

Most of the valuable rubies ever mined came from Upper Burmah. Until 1885 the ruby ground was owned by the Burmese kings, who had such a liking for the "pigeon's-blood" coloured stones that the possession by a private individual of a ruby worth more than £7O was a crime, and any gem of that value was confiscated to the Crown. After Great Britain annexed Upper Burmah, following the "march to Mandalay," the right of working the ruby grounds was taken over by the Burmah Ruby Mines Company,, who hold- a lease until 1932. At the present time, in a strip of land about three miles long and three furlongs broad, the ruby miners, chiefly Chinese Shans, under English supervision, are hard at work. The method is to wash and churn the clay and gravel under water splashings, with rows of steel teeth set in revolving arms, and to pick out by hand the rubies. The best stones go to the London market, and the worst are sold by auction to native, dealers. Most people who fancy they are wearing the real or Oriental ruby are merely possessors of inferior spinel stones or garnets, or "reconstructed" or "scientific" rubies, and though the chemist, as in the case of the diamond, can imitate the ruby, he is far from being able yet to manufacture the genuine article.