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Name and Possessor	Carats (Cut)	Carats (Uncut)	Discovered
1.	Great Mogul	Indian Moguls	280		…	17th Cent.
2–11.	Pitt or Regent	King of Prussia	136	7⁄8	410		1702
3–5.	Florentine	Emperor of Austria	139	1⁄2	…	…
4–12.	Star of the South	Brazilian Government	127		254		1853
6.	Sancy	Czar of Russia	53	1⁄2	83		15th Cent.
7.	Green Diamond[112]	Dresden Museum	40		…	…
8–10.	Koh-i-noor	Crown of England	-		280	(Old)	…	BC 56
106	9⁄16 (New)
9.	Hope	Mrs. E. B. McLean, Washington, D. C.	44	1⁄2	…	…
OTHER NOTED DIAMONDS
Cullinan I	King Edward VII	-		561	1⁄2		-	3,025	3⁄4	1905
Cullinan II	309	3⁄4
Braganza	King of Portugal	Never Cut	1,680		1741
Rajah of Mattan	Rajah of Mattan (Borneo)	367	.9	787	1⁄2	1756
Orloff	Czar of Russia (scepter)	194	3⁄4	…	…
Tavernier	Stolen in 1792	…	242	1⁄2	1668
King of Portugal		138	1⁄2	150		1775
Light Yellow	Stewart (diamond)	…	288	5⁄8	…
Shah	Czar of Russia	86		…	…
Nassac	Lord (Marquis of) Westminster	78	5⁄8	89	5⁄8	…
Porter Rhodes	Found in South America	…	150		1872
Blue		67	1⁄2	112		…
Pigott	Bought by Messrs. Rundell and Bridge	49		…	…
Dudley	Earl of Dudley	49	1⁄2	88	1⁄2	…
Star of South Africa		46	1⁄2	83	1⁄2	1867
Pasha of Egypt	Khedive of Egypt	40		…	…
Charles the Bold		28		…	…

Pearl.—A shelly concretion, usually rounded, having a brilliant luster, with varying tints, formed in the mantle, or between the mantle and shell, of certain bivalve mollusks (especially in the pearl oysters and river mussels) and sometimes in certain univalves. Its substance is the same as nacre or mother-of-pearl. Pearls which are round, or nearly round, and of fine luster, are highly prized as jewels. They are sold by carat grains instead of carats.

Rhodonite.—Manganese spar, or silicate of manganese, a mineral occurring crystallized and in rose-red masses. It is almost entirely used for ornamental purposes, in slabs, blocks, etc.

Rock crystal or mountain crystal.—Any transparent crystal of quartz, particularly of limpid or colorless quartz. A sphere of rock crystal of absolutely perfect clearness, about five inches in diameter, is worth at least twenty thousand dollars.

Rose quartz.—A variety of quartz which is pinkish red.

Rubellite.—A variety of tourmaline varying in color from a pale rose-red to a deep ruby, and containing lithium. It is a little more valuable than the garnet.

Ruby.—A precious stone of a carmine-red color, sometimes verging to violet, or intermediate between carmine and hyacinth red. It is a crystallized variety of corundum. The ruby from Siam is of a dark color and is called oxblood ruby. It has about the same value as the diamond. The ruby from Burmah, called the pigeon-blood ruby, is of a lighter color and several times more valuable than the oxblood ruby.

Sapphire.—A variety of native corundum or aluminium sesquioxide. As the name of a gem the term is restricted to the transparent varieties of blue, pink, yellow, and other colors. The best specimens of the blue variety are nearly as valuable as the diamond. The sapphire is next to the diamond in hardness.

Sard.—A variety of carnelian, of a reddish-yellow or brownish color.

Sardonyx.—A variety of onyx consisting of sard and white chalcedony in alternate layers. (See onyx.)

Spinel.—A mineral occurring in octahedrons of great hardness and various colors, as red, green, blue, brown, and black, the red variety being the gem spinel ruby. It consists essentially of aluminum magnesium, but commonly contains iron and sometimes also chromium. The fine specimens of spinel ruby are worth rather more than half as much as the diamond.

Topaz.—A mineral occurring in rhombic prisms, generally yellowish and pellucid, also colorless, and of greenish, bluish, or brownish shades. It sometimes occurs massive and opaque.

Tourmaline.—A mineral occurring in three-sided prisms. Black tourmaline is the most common variety, but there are also other varieties, as the blue (indicolite), red (rubellite); also green, brown, and white. The red and green varieties, when transparent, are valued as jewels. The finest ones come from Maine, and are worth four or five times as much as garnets.

Turquoise.—A hydrous phosphate of alumina containing a little copper. It has a blue, or bluish-green color, and usually occurs in kidney-shaped masses with a nodular surface like that of a bunch of grapes. The finest specimens are worth nearly half as much as diamonds.

Verd antique.—A mottled-green, serpentine marble, also a green porphyry, which is called oriental verd antique.

Zircon.—A mineral usually of a brown or gray color. It consists of silicon and zirconium, and is harder than the garnet. The transparent varieties are used as gems. The red variety is called Hyacinth; a colorless, pale yellow, or smoky-brown variety from Ceylon is called jargon.

Gold, a metal valued on account of its scarcity, color, luster, and power of resisting oxidation. It is found in nearly all parts of the world. South Africa and the United States are the leading producers. Australia, South America and parts of Europe possess important gold fields.

Gold is separated from gravel (placer mines) by washing with water. The particles of metal, being heavy, sink and can be collected. Rock containing gold is crushed to fine powder and the gold combined with mercury (amalgamation). Low-grade ores are treated with a solution of cyanide of potassium which dissolves the gold and the metal is later separated.

Chloride of gold, used in photographic work, is its only important compound. Pure gold is called twenty-four carats fine. A smaller figure indicates that the metal is alloyed to harden it.

Gold is used for money, jewelry, gold leaf (gilding) and in dentistry. It is almost always alloyed with copper and silver. Gold is the world’s accepted standard of value. Shipments of gold go from one country to another chiefly to balance international business dealings. Government treasuries and bank vaults [113] are the chief storehouses for gold, either as bullion or coin.

Graphite is almost pure carbon. It is produced in Bohemia, Ceylon, Italy, Germany, Mexico and the United States. The deposits in Ceylon are the largest in the world. Much of that mined in New York and Alabama is of very high grade.

Plumbago or black lead is used in making crucibles, lead pencils, lubricants for heavy machinery, stove polish, foundry facings, paint, etc.

Artificial graphite is made from coal or coke by an electric process.

Powdered graphite is mixed with fine clay in greater or less proportion and then molded and baked to form such articles as crucibles and lead for pencils. Graphite is imported from Ceylon to the United States, and lead pencils from Europe.

Iron is the most useful of all metals. The United States, Germany, Great Britain, Spain and France are the greatest producers of iron. Its ores occur in almost all parts of the world. Hematite is mined in Minnesota, Michigan, Alabama and other parts of the United States and in Germany, England, France, Spain, Russia, etc. Limonite is also widely distributed. Pig iron is made by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. The ore, mixed with limestone, is melted by burning coke, coal or charcoal.

Pyrite (iron pyrites, or fool’s gold) is found in Spain and many other parts of the world and is valuable in the preparation of sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol), but useless as an iron ore.

Hematite (sesquioxide of iron) is the ore which supplies three-fourths of the iron of commerce.

Limonite brown (hematite) is a hydrous oxide and furnishes nearly one-fourth of the world’s supply of the metal. Magnetite and siderite are less common ores.

Pig iron is the crude form of the refined metal and is transformed into cast iron, wrought iron and steel in their multitudinous forms.

These three forms of iron differ in hardness, strength, elasticity, malleability, etc., according to the amounts of carbon, sulphur, phosphorus, manganese and other elements.

Ochers and metallic paints are iron oxides. Prussian blue and copperas are iron compounds.

The United States manufactures more iron and steel than any other country. Almost half of the production is in Pennsylvania. Cast iron appears in many articles but is weaker than other forms of iron. Wrought iron contains less impurity and is used for bars, plates, wire, structural material and parts of machinery. Steel (Bessemer, Siemens-Martin, open hearth, etc.) contains more carbon than wrought iron, possesses both strength and hardness, and is used for rails, structural material, machinery, tools, wire rope, sheet steel, etc. Its hardness may be increased by tempering. The United States imports iron ore from Cuba and Spain, pig iron from Great Britain and a little manufactured iron and steel from Europe. We export large quantities of manufactured iron and steel.

Lanthanum. See rare metals.

Lead is the softest, heaviest, most malleable and most easily melted of the common metals. Its ores are found in many countries but the main supply is from the United States, Spain, Germany and Mexico. The chief lead mines of the United States are in Missouri, Idaho, Utah, Colorado and Kansas. Much lead bullion is from smelters where silver ores are reduced.

Galena (lead sulphide) is the only important ore; it often carries a considerable percentage of silver. Carbonates and sulphates of lead are less common. Solder and type metal are alloys of lead with tin and antimony. White lead is a carbonate, red lead and litharge are oxides. Chrome yellow and orange mineral are lead compounds used as pigments.

The chief use of metallic lead is in piping, sheet lead, shot and alloys. Large amounts of ore are transformed not into metallic lead but into white lead for use in paints. Lead ores and lead bullion are imported from Mexico. England is the greatest importer of lead and lead ores.

Lithium is the metallic base of the Alkali lithia. The metal is of a white, silvery appearance, and is much harder than sodium or potassium, but softer than lead. It is the lightest of all known solids, its specific gravity being little more than half that of water. It comes principally from South Dakota, California and Sweden.

In chemical laboratories it is converted into lithium carbonate for medicinal tablets and mineral waters.

Magnesium is a metal widely distributed over the globe, and chiefly mined in Austria, Germany and Greece. The metal is used in flash powders for photographic use, and in chemical manufacture, in fireproofing and lining furnaces.

Magnesite (magnesium carbonate) is used in making carbon dioxide gas and epsom salts and for preparing magnesia (calcined magnesia).

Dolomite (magnesium calcium carbonate) is common limestone, used for building. Found in many parts of the world. Calcined dolomite is used for lining iron furnaces.

Talc (hydrous magnesium silicate), soapstone or steatite, is a soft mineral. Mined in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, etc., and in Europe. It is made into laundry tubs, firebrick, hearthstones, griddles, slate and tailor’s pencils, gas tips, etc. Imported in small amount from France and Italy.

Meerschaum or sepiolite (magnesium silicate), comes from Asia Minor and New Mexico. It is easily carved and made into pipes and cigar holders. Austria and France use large quantities. It is largely imitated.

Asbestos is a fibrous variety of serpentine (a magnesium silicate). Mineral wool is an artificial fibrous mineral. It is mined in Quebec, Canada. Another variety of asbestos comes from Italy. Mines have been recently discovered in Wyoming. It is used as a fireproofing material. This mineral fiber is spun and woven into fireproof fabrics for theater curtains or made into felt building paper, pipe covering, etc.

Mercury (or quicksilver) is a heavy metal which is liquid at ordinary temperatures. It is produced in Spain, the United States, [114] Austria, Italy and Russia. California supplies most of this country’s quota. It is obtained by distillation of the ore.

Cinnabar (sulphide of mercury) is the source of the metal, although a little is found in nature in the pure state.

Vermilion (artificially prepared cinnabar) is used in paints.

Calomel and corrosive sublimate are used in medicine and fulminates of mercury in explosives.

It is used principally in the extraction of gold and silver from their ores by amalgamation. Employed in thermometers and barometers, silvering mirrors, and in making amalgams for dental work.

Mica is a common mineral found in rocks in many parts of the world. It is mined in India, Canada, North Carolina and South Dakota. Several varieties occur (muscovite, biotite, etc.)—valuable only when found in large sheets which can be split smoothly. Transparent sheets are used for lamp chimneys and stove doors. It is also employed in electrical work, and lubricating. Some is imported from India.

Molybdenum. See rare metals.

Nickel is found in the ores pyrrhotite and garnierites, mined in largest amount in New Caledonia and Canada. Norway produces other ores.

Garnierite (a silicate of nickel and magnesium) is the common ore. Magnetic iron pyrite (pyrrhotite) often carries several per cent of nickel. Sulphides and other compounds occur. German silver contains nickel, copper and zinc. It enters into other alloys.

France and Germany refine nickel from imported ore, chiefly from New Caledonia. Nickel steel, being especially hard and tough is used for armor plate, special machinery and wire rope. Nickel is extensively used for cheap electro plating.

Nickel and nickel oxide are exported to Holland and England from the United States and ores and matte are imported from Canada.

Petroleum (or coal oil) is obtained from wells in the United States, Russia, Dutch East Indies, Galicia, Roumania and other countries. More than half of the world’s output is from the United States, the leading districts being (1) Kansas and Oklahoma, (2) California, (3) Illinois, (4) Pennsylvania and (5) Texas. Crude oil is transported from the wells for hundreds of miles through pipe lines to the refineries.

In its crude state, petroleum is a dark colored liquid. It yields by distillation, first: light oils, gasoline, naphtha, benzine; second: illuminating oils, kerosene, headlight oil, etc.; third: lubricating oils, engine oil, cylinder oil, machine oil; fourth: petroleum residuum (for asphalt paving) and coke. Petrolatum, vaseline and paraffin wax are by-products in petroleum refining.

American kerosene oil is exported to all parts of the globe. Crude oil is also exported as well as other petroleum products.

Platinum is a rare metal found with gold, iridium and other rare metals in placer mines. It comes chiefly from Russia. Smaller amounts from Colombia, California, Canada and Australia.

It is used in the terminals of incandescent electric lamps, and also employed by chemists, jewelers and dentists.

Potash (or potassium) is an alkaline metal. Chlorides, sulphates, etc., are found in Germany. Wood ashes and sugar beet refuse furnish much of the world’s potash. Stassfurt, Germany, possesses the only known large deposit of natural potash salts. These salts are the source of potash in many chemical industries and in fertilizers. It is exported in large amount from Germany to England, France and America.

Quartz (silica) is of many varieties, crystalline to amorphous.

Rock flint is mined in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and also comes from the chalk cliffs of England and France.

Sandstones are quarried and used for building in almost all parts of the world. Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York supply the greatest quantities in the United States. Honestones and whetstones are mostly sandstone, and in this country are largely quarried in Arkansas, Michigan and New Hampshire.

Rock crystal is employed for lenses. Many semiprecious stones are varieties of quartz, as agate, moss agate, onyx, sard, chalcedony, chrysoprase, jasper, etc.

Rock flint and quartz sand are used in making glass and pottery.

Outside of building stones, quartz is used in greatest amount in making glass and pottery. For glass it is melted with alkali (soda ash) and either lime or lead oxide. Glass is either blown or molded. Belgium, Austria, Germany, France, Great Britain and the United States manufacture glassware. Pennsylvania, Indiana and New Jersey are the leading states.

Radium is the most characteristic of those substances which possess the property of radio-activity—i.e. have the power of producing photographic or electric effects by a process identical with or analogous to radiation. The property was first observed in uranium by Becquerel in 1896—hence the name “Becquerel rays.” In 1898 Schmidt and Madame Curie discovered almost simultaneously that the compounds of thorium had the same radio-active property; and further elaborate investigations led to the discovery of polonium, radium, and actinium, as new substances with radio-active properties. Polonium was the name given by M. and Mme. Curie to the radio-active component of bismuth separated from pitchblende. Its activity is transient. In the new field of research thus opened up important work has been done by Rutherford, Crooks, Ramsay, Soddy, Huggins, and others.

Radium is derived from pitchblende, in which it exists in very small quantities. After a long-continued process of fractional crystallization it has been prepared in the form of a tolerably pure salt. The process of obtaining the element is very tedious. One to two kilograms of impure radium bromide can be procured from a ton of pitchblende residue only after processes extending over months. For the remarkable chemical properties of radium, see further under Radio-activity.

Rare Metals. These include chiefly the following: Tungsten, molybdenum, vanadium and uranium. They are found in Colorado, Arizona, Germany, England and Sweden. The ores of these metals are unusual minerals, and the metals themselves are used in making special high grades of steel. Their salts are used in dyeing.

Thorium, cerium, lanthanum and yttrium, found in North Carolina, Norway, Brazil and Ceylon, are also to be classified under this head. Monazite, samarskite, thorite and other rare minerals contain these elements. They are used in preparing the mantles for incandescent gas lights.

Silver, the more common precious metal, is produced in greatest amount in the Rocky Mountains and the Andes. The United States, Mexico, Australia, Bolivia, Chili, Peru and Germany contribute nearly the entire supply. Montana, Colorado, Nevada and Utah lead in silver production in the United States. The ores are usually smelted and refined to purify the metal.

Argentiferous galena (lead ore) is the commonest ore of silver. The amount of silver per ton varies greatly. Zinc and copper ores often carry silver. Many sulphides of silver (argentite, pyrargyrite, etc.) are found, as well as chlorides and bromides (cerargyrite and bromyrite). Chloride and nitrate of silver are used in photography.

Silver is manufactured into innumerable articles for household use and personal adornment. The cheapest articles are not solid (sterling) but are electrically plated with a very thin coating of silver. Silver coins form the bulk of the currency of the world, although in most countries gold is the standard.

Sodium is the most important alkaline metal, and has a wide use.

Salt (rock salt, sea salt, lake salt, halite or sodium chloride) is the commonest natural compound of sodium. Important for food and in chemical manufacture.

Rock salt is mined in Germany, Austria, Spain, England, Louisiana, Kansas, India and other parts of the world. Obtained by evaporating salt water from wells in England, Michigan, New York, Ohio and China, or by evaporating salt water in the West Indies, Great Salt Lake, etc.

Besides its use for meat packing, curing fish, domestic purposes, etc., it is employed in silver refining, and the preparation of hydrochloric acid, soda ash, carbonate of soda and other chemical products.

Soda niter (nitrate of sodium) is a very easily soluble mineral. It is found in quantity only in the deserts of northern Chili, and is exported in large amounts to Europe and America for fertilizer and the manufacture of nitric acid and other chemicals.

Borax (hydrous sodium borate) occurs in nature in an impure form and is prepared also from calcium borates. Borates are found in Tuscany, Central Asia, California and Nevada, and in South America.

Borax and boracic acid are used in pottery manufacture, for the preservation of meat, in dyeing and in medicine.

Strontium is found in Germany, Scotland, Texas and New York. Strontianite (strontium carbonate) and celestite (strontium sulphate) contain this element. Strontium salts are used in sugar refining and making red fire.

Sulphur or brimstone is found in a pure state in volcanic regions or associated with gypsum and limestone. Pyrite (sulphide of iron) is also a source of sulphur compounds.

Sicily, Italy, Japan, Louisiana and Utah have mines of native sulphur, which is used in manufacturing sulphuric acid, gunpowder, matches, as a disinfectant, for bleaching and vulcanizing rubber.

Blue vitriol, green vitriol and alum are sulphates. Sulphur is imported from Sicily and Italy.

Thorium. See rare metals.

Tin is less abundant than most of the common metals. The Malay peninsula and nearby islands (Banca and Billiton) produce over half the tin ore of the world. The remainder is mined in Bolivia, Australia, Tasmania and Cornwall, England. Small deposits occur in the United States.

Tin melts at a low temperature and is easily refined.

Cassiterite (tin oxide) is the only important ore. This mineral is commonly found as pebbles (stream tin) in gravel.

Tinplate and alloys containing tin are of enormous importance in the arts. Of these, bronze is chief. Gun metal, pewter, solder, type metal and britannia metal are other alloys. Salts of tin are used in dyeing, glass making, etc.

Tinplate, used for tin cans, roofing and kitchen utensils, is made by dipping sheet iron or steel in a bath of melted tin, thus covering it with a thin layer of tin. Tinplate is manufactured in the United States and imported from England. Tin metal is imported from England and Straits Settlements.

Tungsten. See rare metals.

Uranium. See rare metals.

Vanadium. See rare metals.

Zinc is one of the most useful metals. Germany, United States and Belgium supply most of the zinc. In this country, Missouri and Kansas lead in zinc production.

Sphalerite or blend (zinc sulphide) is the chief ore. Carbonates, silicates and oxides of zinc are found. Crude zinc (spelter) is distilled from roasted ore.

Brass, German silver and other alloys contain zinc. Galvanized iron consists of a coating of zinc on sheet iron. Zinc oxide (zinc white) resembles white lead and is used in paints.

Used in electric batteries, making hydrogen, zinc etchings, etc. The greatest amount of zinc is used in alloys and zinc compounds. Zinc and zinc ores are both imported and exported by the United States, the imports exceeding the exports. Zinc oxide is exported in larger amount than any other form.

HOW AND WHERE WE GET THE SALT FOR OUR FOOD

THE PRODUCTIVE CALIFORNIA SALT BEDS

The United States produces one-fourth of the entire output of the world. Salt was one of the first two great articles of international commerce in the history of the world trade.

AN UNDERGROUND PASSAGE WAY THROUGH SOLID SALT

The most wonderful salt mines in the world are those of Galicia, in Austria. In this region there is a mass of salt estimated to measure 500 miles in length, 20 miles in breadth, and 1,200 feet in thickness.