Artificial Pearls

1895

MADE OF ANY DESIRED COLOR WITH NATURE'S ASSISTANCE.

The Cultivation of Pearl Oysters and the Manufacture of Gems — The Method Employed by the Chinese — The Clever Art of Peeling Pearls.

Mr. George F. Kunz, the well known gem expert, is the author of a monograph on the subject of pearls. He describes the cultivation of the pearl oyster, which is being carried on with success in the bay of Ago, on the Pacific coast of central Japan. This small sheet of water, three miles long and two miles broad, is always calm and is admirably adapted for the culture of the mollusk. Pearl oysters were originally native there and were found in great quantities. Fishing for them has been carried on for three or four centuries. Owing to overfishing the yield between 1880 and 1885 was greatly diminished.

Fearing that the oysters would become extinct, experiments were made with a view of propagating them artificially. This plan was suggested by the late Admiral Yanagi, president of the Japan Fisheries society. During the breeding season the taking of the shellfish was forbidden, and spat was collected on tiles, stones, logs and ropes, the methods adopted being the same as have been tried successfully with the edible oysters of America and Europe. In this way the yield of pearls has been restored, and the Japanese government contemplates an extension of the industry in other waters.

Before this methods had been found for the production of real pearls by nature's aid. A Frenchman named Bouchon-Brandely has been making interesting experiments in this direction recently. He bored holes in the shells of pearl oysters with a gimlet, introduced through the perforations little balls of glass and stopped the openings with corks. At the end of four weeks the balls were found to be covered with a thin layer of pearl. In six months the layer was sufficiently thick to be permanent. The size of the gem thus manufactured is in proportion to the time that has elapsed. Of course it has a limit, inasmuch as the mollusk will not deposit nacre indefinitely, the only purpose of the nacre being to protect the oyster from irritation by the intruding object.

Pearls can be made of various colors by a very simple process. Each mollusk deposits its own sort of nacre. The nacre of the pearl bearing, fresh water mussel called the unio is pink. Pearl oysters produce black pearls, gray pearls or pearls of pure white, according to the part of the animal where the nucleus makes its lodgment.

At the Smithsonian institution in Washington is exhibited an artificial pearl as big as a pigeon's egg and of an exquisite pink color. It is formed about a pellet of beeswax, which was placed for the purpose in the shell of a living unio. Recent experiments made by the fish commission show that marine mollusks can be kept admirably in aquariums. Thus there seems to be no reason why every one should not maintain his own pearl fishery on a small scale, collecting the crop at suitable intervals.

The Chinese have been most successful in producing artificial pearls. The business constitutes an important industry. It is confined to two villages in the northern part of the province of Chih-Kiang. In the months of May and June large quantities of mussels are brought in baskets from a lake 30 miles distant, and the biggest of them are selected for the operation that is to be performed. Into the shell of each mollusk are introduced small objects which it is intended the bivalve shall coat with the pearly substance it secretes. Sometimes little balls of earth are used. Such pellets are made of mud from the bottom of water courses, dried and powdered with the juice of the seeds of the camphor tree.

To place these nuclei inside of the mussels is a process of no little difficulty. The shell is opened with a small instrument of mother of pearl, the mantle of the animal is gently lifted, and the pellets are laid beneath the mantle. The shell is then permitted to close. Finally the mollusks are deposited in canals or pools. They are placed five to six inches apart at depths of from two to five feet in lots of 5,000 to 50,000. In November they are lifted and opened. The animals are removed from the shells and the pellets detached with a sharp knife. By this time they are fastened tightly to the inner surface of the shells and have become covered with a coating of nacre. Next a little hole is cut in each pearl at the point where it has been attached to the shell of the mussel. Through this opening the earth which composed the nucleus is removed. The hollow pearl is then filled with melted yellow rosin, and the orifice is artfully covered with a piece of mother of pearl.

The pearls thus formed are flat on the bottom and in shape are somewhat more than hemispheres. They have much of the luster and beauty of the real gems and are sold so cheaply as to be procurable by all who care to possess them. They are employed to a considerable extent by jewelers, who set them in tiaras and various ornaments for women.

Parisian jewelers are very clever in the art of "peeling" pearls. They will take a pearl that is not pretty at all and remove its outer coat, revealing a beautiful gem within. A pearl is composed of alternate layers of nacre and animal tissue, and the process of peeling is very difficult. The tools employed are a sharp knife, various sorts of files, pearl powder and a piece of leather. The pearly coats are extremely hard and must be cut off piece by piece, the operator relying more on the sense of touch conveyed by the blade of the knife than on the sense of sight.

Pearls found imbedded in the mother of pearl of the oyster shell are made marketable by skillful treatment with acids. Experts know how to make pearls of any color black in a bath of nitrate of silver, and by other chemical means they can turn them to rose color, lilac or gray. Pearls of these unusual tints bring fancy prices.

A few years ago a pearlshop purchased an old gold brooch in a small German town for $20. In the center of it was what looked like a spherical piece of hematite, which is an ore of iron. On examination it proved to be a superb black pearl weighing 77 grains. The outer coat had become faded by sunlight, but when it was removed one of the most beautiful gems of this kind known in modern times was exposed to view. It was a lustrous black and was said to be worth $10,000. Perfectly round pearls over 25 grains in weight are scarce and fetch huge prices, being sought after to form the centers of necklaces.


Brazilian Cuisine

The flesh of the boa constrictor is eaten by the aborigines of Brazil.

Two Pearls In Single Shell

1916

River Mussel Yields Tidy Sum to Finder.

CHARLES CITY, Iowa. — Sam Waid of Cedar township found along the Little Cedar River two large pearls in one shell. The pearls have been estimated by buyers to be worth at least $50 each.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 5.

Skinning a Pearl

1902

The lapidary was skinning a pearl. He had on gloves of a very delicate sort of kid, and the glasses that he wore had lenses of such great magnifying power that his eyes, through them, looked as big as saucers.

"I wear gloves," he said, "because the hands perspire freely in this work, and perspiration has often been known to discolor pearls. This stone was injured by the accidental dropping on it of some acid. The disaster discolored it, you see. With this very delicate little tool I am removing its outer skin, and if I find that the acid has filtered through and discolored the inner skin also I may remove that as well.

"A pearl, you see, is composed of concentric layers, or skins, and you can, if you are a clever workman, peel it down and down until it disappears. That operation, indeed, is often done by the apprentices of the lapidary trade. They work on spoiled, worthless pearls, and the experience is very good for them. It teaches them a great deal about the pearl's anatomy, and it gives wonderful cunning to their hands. The pearl is the only precious stone that can he skinned. To skin it is often the only way to restore its milky color." — Philadelphia Record.

Now Futurist Face Powder

1914

Mauve, Yellow and Green Tints Made by Fashion's Leaders From Pearl Dust

The post-impressionist artists, painting, as they do, mauve, yellow, green, and brown flesh tints, have given a new idea to manufacturers of cosmetics. The fashionable woman may now tint her complexion in any tone as easily as she may assume a toilette in that color. One manufacturer is showing face powders in shades called violet yellow, emerald, old rose and ashen rose.

These new tints are recommended only for evening wear, as it is generally admitted that they would be too grotesque for daylight. The amazing thing, however, is that they really look well on the skin, and when applied give only the faintest suggestion of shadowy color. Thus, when the mauve powder is used, the shadows have a sort of purple bloom, which is rather becoming and lends softness to the face, accentuating in small degree the expression of the eyebrows and eyelashes, and also intensifying the color of the eyes. The purple tint is usually recommended for brunettes with blue or gray eyes.

Yellow powder is flattering to blondes, who need to intensify the yellow in their skins to correspond with the shadows cast from golden hair. This intensifies the type and makes it much warmer looking, therefore much more harmonious than if the face were tinted with either white or so-called flesh-colored powder.

The most difficult of all the new shades to conceive as having a place among beauty applications is the green powder. But through demonstration it is proved that certain types of coloring look well with the green tint, notably ashen blondes who have the reflection of green lights from the hair. This is also recommended for types too florid, whether blonde or brunette. It is said to give a cool, clean look to such skins.

The rose color is not at all the old fashioned flesh pink, but a sort of salmon tinted old rose. This is a color which would be well suited to a neutral brunette, as it would warm the type, giving body and a look of strength to the skin and a consequent health-like flush.

It is an interesting fact that these new cosmetics are made from powder of real pearls, a discovery of somewhat recent date, though for some time in quite current use in Paris.

Making Artificial Pearls

1907

What a Little Silver Fish Taught a French Beadmaker

"I'll tell you," said a jeweler, "how the wonderfully perfect artificial pearl came to be invented.

"A rich French beadmaker, Molse Jaquin — he lived in the seventeenth century — found a pond in his garden covered one morning with a lovely silvery luster. Amazed, he called his gardener, who said it was nothing — some albettes had got crushed; that was all.

"Albettes were little silver fish, bleaks the Leuciscus alournus. The gardener explained that if you crushed them they always gave the water a pearly sheen like that. Jaquin put on his thinking cap.

"For six years he worked with beads and bleaks, wasting millions of both, but finally he achieved success. He learned how to extract the pearly luster from the bleaks' scales and to cover a glass bead with it.

"What he did — and his method is still used — was to scrape the scales from the fish, wash and rub them and save the water. The water, decanted, gave off a lustrous fluid of the thickness of oil, a veritable pearl paint, a magic fluid that imparts a lovely pearly sheen to everything it is applied to.

"It takes 1,000 bleaks to yield an ounce of this pearl paint. — New Orleans Times-Democrat.

Perils of a Pearl Diver

1895

Hanging Head Down For Half an Hour Before Being Rescued

I had not been diving more than three weeks when my first accident happened, says a writer in the Cosmopolitan, and it was so utterly unexpected and so nearly cost me my life that it taught me a lesson which I never forgot.

It happened in the following simple way: "I had been working in about ten fathoms of water, a fairly good patch of shell, for several hours, and about dinner time, having a full bag, I screwed up the valve, to make myself lighter, and gave the customary signal to be pulled up. The life-line tautened, and I was soon lifted from my feet and being drawn toward the lighter water above. The angry frame of mind that usually attends a diver at work passes away he is raised to the surface, and I was within ten feet of the boat, and just getting good-tempered again at the thought of a mouthful of fresh air, when I felt a sudden jerk under my left arm, and at the same instant my progress was stopped. Before I realized what was the matter the air pipe that held it under my arm, slipped over it, and I was pulled head downward, while the hauling of the boys above on the life-line, which was fast around my waist, raised the lower part of my body and left me suspended heels up!

"In the first few moments of my surprise and terror I did not stop to think what had happened; my presence of mind deserted me, and I struggled and screamed like a caged madman. I felt that I was trapped and I was in an agony of fright. After a little while, having kicked myself into a state of exhaustion and common sense, I reasoned out the case of my dilemma. As the strain on the air pipe was downward and that of the life-line upward, I concluded that the air pipe must be fast below, and that the only thing to be done was to go down again and clear it.

"First, I regulated the air in my dress, letting out as much as I could spare, for in my present position all the air went into my legs and kept them floating upward, and then I tried to make the boys understand that I wanted them to lower me. All my jerks and shakes on the life-line, however, failed to get what I wanted. They obstinately held the line taut, trying every few minutes to pull me in halves. Fortunately all my gear was in very good shape or they would have accomplished it. I learned afterward that all on deck were so scared that they were of no use, but they finally had sense enough to signal for help, and, after hanging between the top and the bottom for about half an hour, my air pipe was loosened from below by another diver and I was pulled up, thankful enough to get my feet down to their proper level once more."

Japanese Man "Farming" Oysters for Crop of Pearls

1912

RAISING PEARLS ON "FARM"

Japanese Has Decided He Can Produce Them on Land Laid Out in Ocean's Bed

Mr. Mikinoto's oyster farm in the Bay of Ago, off the coast of Japan. is one of the few successful attempts at the deliberate production of pearls. Mikinoto spent several years in costly experiments before he perfected his scheme.

Then he secured government patents and, according to Popular Mechanics, has succeeded in getting his "farm" on a paying basis. He first makes a bed for his crop in the shallows of the bay, where the larvae of the pearl oyster abound during the months of July and August.

He merely deposits a large number of small stones, to which the oyster spat naturally attach themselves. Then his diving women transplant the young oysters to deeper waters to protect them from the cold.

Here they lie on carefully prepared beds until in their third year they become full grown, and have firmly attached themselves to the stones by means of "necks" which they secrete.

At this time the diving women bring the mollusks to the surface and they undergo an operation. A small seed pearl is introduced into the center of the shell. Then the oysters are replanted in the bed and left alone for four years.

When they are again brought to the surface it is found that the seed pearl nucleus has been covered with many layers of the nacre, a secretion of the mollusk, and the large, brilliant translucent pearl of commerce has been formed.

But the process is not as simple as it appears. During the seven years that the farmer must wait for his crop to mature a large percentage of the oysters die. The oyster beds are raided by such enemies as the octopus and the starfish.

Occasionally the "red current" sweeps over them and in a day destroys the entire crop. At all times the farmer must keep his oyster bed free of "miruno," a seaweed which will smother the crop.

Women divers trained from girlhood to long immersions in the Sea are engaged at 20 cents a day to care for the farm. In this work they wear nothing but a head cloth, a white shirt and diving goggles. At each dive they can gather several oysters and return to the surface.

A dive occupies about one minute, and a day's work is from four to six hours. An expert can readily gather 500 oysters a day in a depth of water ranging from two to six fathoms. To keep at the work for a day they must frequently come up and warm themselves at a fire.

—The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, December 17, 1912, page 8.


Love of Books

Book love, my friends, is your pass to the greatest, the purest and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for his creatures. It lasts when all other pleasures fade. It will support you when all other recreations are gone. It will last you until your death. It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live. — Anthony Trollope.

—The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, December 17, 1912, page 6.