A Lapidary's Shop

The actual work of cutting, drilling, and polishing gems has ever been surrounded Dy an air of mystery which the curious have only in very rare instances been able to penétrate. Strange as it may 6eem, the hardest gems, and even the diamond, are cut with a rapidly-revolving disc of tin, that has no teeth, mnd is perf ectly smooth on its edge. There are a number of these discs, says the Philadelphia Press, varying in size from the head of a small pin up to twenty inchesormore in diameter. The discs are placed on the mandril of an ordinary foot lathe, and the surf ace of the disc is kept running in a bath of turpentine and oil in which is placed a quantity of emery or diamond dust, according to the character of the stone to be cut. I5y this process it has been found that the hardest stones are the easiest cut. The little disc of tin slips through a piece of crocidolite quite as rapidly as a buzz saw would through a piece of soft pine. Mnch of the work that formerly was accomplished by the slow process of grinding after chipping off as much as could be done with safety and at enormous expense, is now done so easily that t is scarcely counted in the cost. Aftar the gems are cut on the tin wheel to near their required shape they are taken over to the polishing wheels, where another surprise awaits the visitor. The polishing1 wheels are all made of lead and turned slowly by hand. The gems, however, never touch the real surface of the lead. They are smeared with a mixture of water and tripoli or diamond dust. The drilling is still performed with the old-fashioned bow and cord of the ancients, whioh for many rcasons has been found superior to the finest lathe drill. The gems before they can be polished are carefully fastened on the end of a stick about four or five inches long by rneans of cement, which is first heated over a gas jet