rolled to a thickness as of blotting-paper in a strip fifteen or twenty feet in length, this drawn into tubes having the gold upon the outer side, and then reduced in size and drawn out in length until it becomes perfectly solid wire down to the smallest sizes,-leads us to marvel at the thinness of the gold shell that must by that time remain around the enclosed brass, and further to wonder indeed as to what is our jewellery. Yet these low grades are still rolled plate.

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Much of the best of our gold-plated wires and wire jewellery, chains, etc., of the past few years, is known as seamless.» The best of the older plated wires had the seam of the tube soldered as soon as made into a tube from the flat plated stock. The seamless wires have several varying processes, the principle lying in cutting a large disc either from gold or from plate, and "drawing it up," first into a cup shape and then into a tube. If the disc be of gold, a rod of brass is soldered into the tube, filling it solid and the whole is reduced to wire. If the disc be of plate, the tube is drawn until it becomes solid, or a rod may also be inserted. In both cases the wire necessarily has an unbroken, or seamless, and thoroughly wrought covering of gold. It is perfectly solid, and may be twisted, tied, or turned without detriment, as there is no seam to open or corrode, as in ordinarily made plated wire. The wire ends when joined, or when capped, and soldered with gold solder, are thus plated at these exposed points and the whole becomes-to the eye, and outwardly at least - solid gold.

The gold solder of the jeweller by which the parts of his work are united and made one is of varying grades, like the gold he works upon. It is prepared like solid gold, of any quality desired, and rolled into thin strips from which he may cut the small pieces necessary. It must-or should-match the color of the gold it is used upon as closely as possible, yet it must melt at a much lower temperature. This is readily accomplished by varying the proportion of the metals used. The parts of the work to be soldered, being thoroughly cleansed, are covered with a coating of borax. The solder, treated in like manner, is applied, and the whole is subjected to the flame of a blow-pipe until the solder melts and flows as directed by the workman.

Next in order comes fire-gilt or plated

jewellery. Goods of this class are first made up in their respective forms from brass. They are then dipped in an amalgam containing chloride of gold. A coating of this quicksilver containing the gold adheres at once, in a thin film, to the articles to be gilded. They are then placed in an oven and heated until the quicksilver is burned off, leaving the gold deposited as fire-gilt plate. A proper covering being obtained in this manner, the articles are burnished and otherwise finished and brought to the proper color, and are ready for sale. Properly and well done, a good and serviceable plating may thus be applied, but it is seldom that either gold or labor are applied in sufficient quantity to give satisfactory results to the wearer. Such goods, under our lack of laws to prevent fraud, are often stamped with misleading marks, representing them to be of any grade up to eighteen-karat, the latter being the favorite.

For electro-plate the goods are prepared much as if for fire-gilding. For the plating proper there are many and varied processes of an electro-chemical nature. A dynamo furnishes the current. The gold used is in a cyanide solution into which an anode of fine gold is suspended to replenish the solution as drawn from, though this latter is more often dispensed with as using too much gold. The articles to be plated are wired and suspended in the solution as a cathode, and the desired gold deposit is allowed to attach itself to them by electro-chemical action. The "bright finish" articles are toned up in color as desired by other solutions of copper and silver, into which a "dipping" at the discretion of the colorer is made. Many articles of brass are polished and finished as if of gold, and then, after a dipping for a short time in an alloyed anode solution, come from it with a bright finish of the alloyed gold color desired, and capable of standing an ordinary acid test as if of solid gold. Most of the lowgrade gold goods are now treated in this manner also. The wearing qualities of these electro deposits is decidedly lacking, and goods so finished serve their purpose but a short time.

We have next to consider what is "filled," or, as often quoted, "solid gold filled jewellery. "Filled," as at present used in the trade, is not only a misnomer, but is apt to be a delusion and a snare. Forty or fifty and more years ago, before

the advent of rolled plate, the term "filled gold," or "gold filled," had a distinct meaning and proper value, the relic of which is the present public estimation of the term and its consequent continued use by the trade to-day. In the early days a thin shell of gold was "struck up" into a jewellery form and "filled" or "stiffened" by melting solder in it. The better grades were filled with "hard" solder, while the cheaper stuff was loaded with "soft" solder of the tinsmith formula, and thus filled or stiffened. Frequently a hard and dense running cement was used. The hard solder used for filling was largely made from copper and silver, and so proportioned as to melt at a low red heat. This was placed in properly cut and prepared pieces in the light, paper-like gold shells, and, by the use of the blow-pipe, fused until it ran completely over the interior and thus made serviceable the otherwise fragile piece. A backing of similar structure was then joined in like manner to the front or ornamented piece, and the whole was then polished, finished, chased, and engraved, and became a strong and serviceable piece of jewellery, as many an old box of hoarded heirlooms can testify. By this process far more gold was wasted in oxidation, polishing, and finishing than would serve to make several pieces of jewellery put up as rolled plate, of more pleasing style and generally apparent worth, by the processes of to-day.

Our plated jewellers of to-day are careful to avoid oxidation. The plate is kept bright and clean by highly finished rolls and dies. It is protected from oxidation in annealing and soldering, and the latter is avoided wherever possible. From the dies the plate goes direct into the finished form, and the article thus loses none of its gold in polishing and requires only the lightest finishing, comparatively speaking.

The soft-solder jewellery of old was made in the same manner as the hardsolder-filled goods. Requiring no red heat and consequently no polishing, the shells could be made thinner and struck bright. Being then filled, only a slight finishing was needed. Some of it did fairly good service. With the manufacture of rolled plate came the reduction of gold thickness necessary for the shells for this filled jewellery. The old dies were used, as was the general plan of making the goods, but the substitution of a plated

for a gold shell was carried on for some years until styles of work changed and it was found useless to go to the expense of filling with solder when the necessary filling or stiffness could as readily be had by using a proper amount of brass on which the gold was plated. The so-called "filled" rings, chains, watch-cases, etc., of to-day-whether offered as " stiffened gold," "solid gold filled," "14-K gold filled," or under any of the various filled claims made are nothing more nor less than rolled gold plate. They may or may not be of a grade and quality of plate putting them on an equal plane of merit with the old-style filled goods whose wearing qualities merited public confidence, but they are all, nevertheless, rolled plate. As competition cuts the price for this class of goods season by season, the quality and thickness of the gold is gradually reduced, and the labor cut here and there, until the result will be that where we now look with some degree of confidence on an article offered us as filled, there will come to be too little merit in the general run of them, and the "filled" goose will be killed.

The majority of goods so classed by the reliable trade to-day is superior to the rolled-plate class, in that they are generally better made and of a better grade of plate, more nearly representing the gold goods of similar style. The raw edges are either carefully turned and swaged into a seeming gold edge, or a thin sheet of gold is applied, to cover the brass that otherwise would soon be evident. Years ago the popular mind became impressed with the idea that filled jewellery was superior to rolled plated goods. To put upon the market, in the face of this prejudice, a plated article, were it even superior in every way to the usually accepted filled goods, would have been folly, as facing and competing with ordinary plated wares. Hence this class of really fine plated goods have come to be known as "filled." The delusion and the snare lies in the abuse of the word as used, in the flooding of the trade with the veriest trash stamped and marked in many ways as "filled," and with accompanying guarantees," for five, ten, or twenty years, as devoid of value as the goods themselves, and in most cases as meaningless as they are irresponsible.

The wearing qualities of the various grades of solid gold alloys are dependent

to a great degree upon the state of health of the wearer and his general constitutional and physical condition. Especially is this the case if the article is worn next the person. Many persons complain of articles they have purchased as good gold, because of a blackening of the finger or of the skin, where constant touch and contact with the perspiration or moisture from their system has caused a dark dis-· coloration to appear. In some cases this

blackening affects only the skin of the wearer. In more aggravating form the gold itself is also discolored or tarnished, and turns into varying surface colors— from a bluish, filmy white, easily removed, to the rusty, dark, and reddish brown that is only removed by persistent scrubbing. In such cases the article is at once condemned as brass, or, at the best, poor gold, when it really may be an eighteenkarat genuine gold alloy. Fortunately most of us are able to wear a fourteenkarat article with satisfaction in this respect. A smaller proportion can with equal satisfaction wear the ten-karat gold of the trade. Where there may be five persons in a hundred who are necessitated, by the peculiarities of their physical make-up, to wear better than fourteen karat gold, there are probably fewer than one in the hundred who have any difficulty with eighteen-karat metal. Fewer still are they who cannot wear it, be it ever so carefully alloyed and made into the artiIcle to be worn. There seems to be no distinction of persons. The fairest lady or young miss, or the stalwart young athlete showing health and good condition in every line of his face and form, may in the moisture of the skin possess that tarnishing quality that will admit of the wearing of nothing less than twenty- or twenty-twokarat gold. Even among the jewellery dealers the facts as described are not generally recognized, so well nigh universal is the satisfaction with which eighteenkarat is used and worn. The ordinary dealer is himself quite as apt to believe he has been imposed upon by the parties selling him the goods, as he is properly to place the difficulty when confronted with a badly tarnished ring or button of eigh teen-karat gold. In justice to him it may also be fairly stated that he is about as likely to be correct in that conclusion, unless assured, from long dealing, of the reliability of his manufacturer or jobber. The impunity with which ten-karat gold

is stamped as of fourteen-karat quality, and the reckless manner in which all sorts of misleading stamps are used upon brass, plated, and low-grade gold goods, were it but half understood by the general public thus abused, would speedily secure by legislation the national stamping laws that certainly are badly needed.

As to the stones used in adding variety and attractiveness to our jewellery, much might be written. Of the real gems we

are most of us sufficiently well posted to know the diamond, ruby, emerald, sapphire, or turquoise, from the opal, pearl, tourmaline, or other commonly seen stones. To be able to grade the various kinds and assort and accord them a proper value is the study of a lifetime. All are imitated for use in the jewellery of the masses of our people. Some are produced artificially to a limited extent, but in imitations we have everything that ever existed as real gems, and a large assortment also that, if ever existent at all, must have been in other worlds than this earth of ours.

Most of the stones used in our jewellery are imported. Some of the cheapest sort, that are simply "pinched" from melted glass in a form or die giving them the required shape, are made here. Where any cutting, grinding, or lapidary work is required, the lower-priced labor of the older countries furnishes the goods.

There are grades of imitations as of real stones. The diamond has been imitated in all its degrees of perfection and shades of color, yet there is no imitation of the king of gems that possesses the peculiar lack of transparency it holds. The cut, finish, and color may be perfection itself, but the defying quality of refractive brilliance has never been approached. As the best of the imitations are but a soft glass, their wearing quality is limited. Quartz crystal, when cut into the form of a diamond, has the merit of its degree of hardness, but it lacks the brilliance of the glass imitations. Of the diamond doublets the same may be said; for the application of the garnet or other stone facing to the glass back, while it adds wearing quality, certainly detracts from the bril liance, and, as well, more readily attracts and holds a moisture of surface which effectually hides all the brilliance there is. Of the colored stone imitations the doublets are the best, and in the better grades and more carefully cut and pre

pared goods are quite as handsome as the stones they represent. All of them, regardless of color, are faced with garnet. The color of the glass back overcomes the red of the garnet, so that it is only to be seen by careful inspection. They will wear a lifetime.

The common colored-glass imitations, of course, lack the wearing surface given to the doublets, though the best of them are cut and finished in identical fashion.

From the materials here described, put together as they frequently are, with a painstaking care, having due regard to

T

The

HE establishment of a connection by tunnel between Great Britain and Ireland is an undertaking which is extremely interesting whether regarded from a scientific, engineering, industrial, or international point of view. political and military objections which were fatal to the Channel tunnel scheme have no application to the case of Ireland, while to modern engineers, who have pierced the St. Gothard and the Arlberg mountain chains, and have burrowed under the Severn and the Thames, no obstacles are insuperable. The bed of the sea has been examined, and there is nothing in the geological strata to suggest that there would be any danger.

It is proposed to carry the tunnel 150 feet below the sea, so that there will be no risk of the sea getting into the tunnel. There would be no difficulty with the ventilation, as the traction would be by means of electricity, and a very slight current of air would be sufficient. In the

case of the Mersey and the Severn tunnels there have been serious difficulties, but with the application of electricity to traction these difficulties were practically removed.

Mr.. Arthur Balfour, First Lord of the Treasury, and Earl Cadogan, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, have recently received a deputation introduced by Lord Londonderry and bearing a letter from Lord Spencer; Lord Wolseley having also written saying the sooner the tunnel was made the better. The gentlemen received at the Foreign Office were men representing all shades of political opinion who

were convinced that the scheme was both advisable and practicable. Among those present were Mr. Barton, the engineer of the scheme, and Professor Edward Hull, late director of the geological survey of Ireland. In this interview were brought out more especially the industrial aspects of the enterprise; particularly the financial part of the question, which seems to present the most serious problems.

As to the ability of the engineers to accomplish the undertaking, no one appears to doubt that. Lord Spencer, in his letter, writes: "As they say they can make the tunnel, I am disposed to believe they can." Lord Charles Beresford, going even further, says "Give them money enough and they can do anything."

In speaking of the proposed traction by means of electricity, Mr. Balfour asked if the cost would not be greater by the electric engine than by the locomotive, and Sir Douglas Fox replied: "No; if traffic is sufficiently frequent, it is cheaper working by electricity than by the locomotive.»

This question as to the amount of traffic is, after all, one of the chief points upon which the whole matter turns. Mr. Balfour says:

"I would like to be convinced that, if the tunnel were made, the great stream both of passenger traffic and goods traffic would not still continue to go, as it does at present, along the more southern routes. The proposed tunnel goes, not from England to Ireland, but from Scotland to Ireland, a point, as a Scotsman, I do not object to, and also I admit that I am one of those who would go a long way round, even 150 feet under the sea, rather than cross the sea; but these are personal tastes and we will

have to consider whether it (the tunnel) will be able to compete successfully with the seaborne commerce which at present goes not only between Belfast and England, but between Dublin and the whole of the south of Ireland and England.»

Unfortunately Nature has placed the two islands in the closest juxtaposition at a point which does not coincide with any of the main currents of commercial and passenger traffic. The tunnel now contemplated will establish a connection between the coast of Wigtownshire in the southwest of Scotland and the coast of Antrim in the northeast of Ireland at points near Stranraer and Belfast. It is uncertain if trade and travelling intercourse between the south of England and the south of Ireland would be carried on to any great extent by this proposed roundabout route. If the distance from Holyhead to Kingstown were only twenty-five miles (about that between the points selected) the advantage of substituting transit by land for a rough sea passage would be incontestable.

A group of financiers seem ready to make the tunnel if the government will guarantee a three per cent dividend on the cost of the undertaking, including interest during construction, to take effect only when the tunnel is actually open for traffic.

The view which may be taken by the government of this proposal may be better understood by repeating what Mr. Balfour said to the gentlemen of the deputation:

"The problem that suggests itself to me on the financial question is this. The financiers are prepared, as we are told, to find the large sum of money necessary, and we have to consider two different questions, the answers to which are necessarily problematical. One is as to the amount of traffic which will come by the new tunnel when constructed, and the other is as to the possibility of making the tunnel itself. They appear to be clear that the tunnel can be made, and made at a certain cost, but they are not clear that when it is made it will pay. I should have thought that the question easy to answer is the question which they think difficult to answer, and the question which they think easy to answer seems to me difficult to answer. What I should have found hard to prove is as to the feasibility of the tunnel, but I should have thought it was a matter of easy calculation for those acquainted with railway matters and other cognate subjects to determine, when the tunnel was made, the amount of traffic per twenty-four hours, per week, per month,

or per year, to go through it. I am therefore rather surprised to find that they are ready to take upon their own shoulders the whole risk of making the tunnel, and only ask the government to come to their support in dealing with the much more simple and much more calculable problem in regard to the amount of traffic which will go through the tunnel after it is made.»

After speaking very much in detail as to the proposition made by the financiers, Mr. Balfour asks this question:

"Do they contemplate that, whatever the expenditure, they are to get three per cent upon it, or would they be content with that charge on the ten millions with two millions added for interest, the total being twelve millions? Would these gentlemen be satisfied with the government guarantee of three per cent upon the twelve millions, even though the tunnel were to cost very much more than the original estimate contemplated, for we know that engineering works frequently do exceed the estimates?»

The deputation did not need to be reminded by these last words that something of this sort had been experienced in the case of the Severn tunnel, and on a much more formidable scale in the St. Gothard railway, when the guaranteeing governments were compelled to increase their subsidies very largely.

The establishment of communication by land between Great Britain and Ireland would undoubtedly have an excellent effect in drawing the populations closer together and increasing the prosperity of the latter island. Many of the difficulties of the Irish question would be removed by Ireland being brought into closer contact with the rest of the United Kingdom and closer social relations being established. Nothing could be so effective in bringing this about as direct intercourse by land.

In a very material degree Great Britain would be drawn nearer to the United States. The route to America would be shortened by enabling trains to run direct to Galway, whence the transatlantic steamers would be able to accomplish the sea passage in a much shorter time than it occupies at present. There is no doubt that the construction of the proposed tunnel would be a great international advantage which must appeal to every man interested in Western civilization and progress.

WEST NASHVILLE, Tenn.

ANNA ERWIN.