When was ruby discovered

As with any gemstone, the enhancements or treatments a Ruby undergoes should be disclosed on its bill of sale. For treated and untreated Rubies, the safest cleaning method is using a solution of warm water and gentle dish detergent. Allow the piece to soak for a few minutes, lightly scrub with a soft brush, and let dry on a soft cloth. As with other fine jewelry, remove Rubies before bedtime.

For treated and untreated rubies, the safest cleaning method is using a solution of warm water and gentle dish detergent. As with other fine jewelry, remove rubies before bedtime.

Rubies were made into pendants to guard against poison, plague, evil thoughts, and wicked spirits. Ruby is the birthstone of July and the gemstone for Cancer. Ruby commemorates the 15th and 40th anniversary and is the sacred gem of Friday.

From there it was a small step from rubinus to ruby. The area around Mogok, Myanmar has seen human habitation since the middle paleolithic period. It is not so hard to believe that these early inhabitants would have stumbled upon the fine rubies of this locality and kept them as decoration, amulets, or maybe even tools.

Archaeological investigations have been very scarce. The restrictions for foreigners to enter the country that have been put in place by the military regime of Myanmar prevents us from getting a clear picture of the ancient inhabitants of the area and their use of rubies.

Another ancient source of gem corundum has been Sri Lanka. We can find written accounts of red stones that could be ruby in the writings of Theophrastus who speaks of red stones that resemble hot coal when viewed with the sun behind it. An interesting note is that Pliny mentions glass imitation stones that can be distinguished from genuine gemstones by hardness and inclusion studies.

Arabic scholars during the second half of the first millennium AD speak of Yakut , a term used for corundum and a few other gemstones. It is believed that red Yakut is correctly translated to ruby. The writers of Asia Minor had a far better knowledge of ruby localities than the classical writers and when one reads the descriptions known deposits like Badakshan and Sri Lanka can be recognized.

One polymath in particular leaves very little doubt that he is describing ruby; the 11th-century scholar Al-Biruni , who conducted specific gravity determinations on a whole series of gemstones. His findings are very accurate; he lists a specific gravity of 3. Two centuries later the Europeans were still fumbling around in the dark. This can be seen in the writings of Albertus Magnus who erroneously mentions Libya as a major locality, a mistake most likely to have come from reading the 11th-century lapidary from Marbodus.

Rubies from present-day Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar would have reached Europe through the ports on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean up until then. When western European armies went on their crusades in the 11th and 12th centuries they encountered and looted the riches of the Arabic world.

With it came a revived interest in the East and its economic potential. The travel logs of Marco Polo, written in the 13th century were the first eye-witness accounts of the world to the east of present-day India and his memoirs have inspired many to travel to the East and harvest its riches.

The increased contact with the advanced Arabic scholars from the 11th century and later the invention of movable print during the last years of the Middle Ages engendered a new level of knowledge among European readers. Accounts from de Boodt and Nicols — the authors of two lapidaries of the 17th century — discuss rubies, their deposits and their use in greater detail than any of their European predecessors.

The 18th century is marked by a further growing mineralogical consciousness until finally ruby and sapphire were both recognized as corundum around The heat treatment of ruby to improve color and clarity is described in some of the earliest known sources on the subject. The beginning of the 19th century saw the invention of the gas blowpipe which enabled higher temperatures to be reached than had ever been achieved previously.

Clarke published details of his experiments with it:. Across the 19th century, attempts had also been made to create man-made rubies. A few less fruitful attempts made in the s inspired the head of the chemistry laboratory of the Natural History Museum in Paris, Edmond Fremy, to take up the cause. He managed to produce small rubies by heating the raw materials for ruby in a flux which causes them to dissolve at much lower temperatures.

Cooling of the flux, containing the dissolved ingredients, caused crystallisation of rubies. But, not all was artificial. The 19th century brought European miners to the Mogok Valley in Myanmar and large amounts of ruby were mined and introduced to the Western markets. The 20th century that has seen a score of inventions that allowed advanced heat treatment techniques, new methods of synthesis and filling techniques to emerge.

Georgian Ruby and Diamond Brooch. Even the Black Ruby, one of the famed crown jewels of England, was considered one of the largest cut rubies until determined to be spinel. The red fluorescence power of ruby helped build the first working laser in Rubies—both natural and synthetic—are still used to make lasers, as well as watches and medical instruments. July Birthstone. History of Rubies.