AMBER.

Few minerals have been longer in favor for ornamental purposes than

amber. Among remains of the earliest peoples such as the Egyptians and

Cave-dwellers of Switzerland it is found in carved masses indicating

that it was highly prized. The Phenicians are said to have sailed to the

Baltic for the purpose of procuring it, while the Greeks’ knowledge of

it is indelibly preserved in our word electricity derived from their

word elektron. The high favor in which the ancients regarded amber has

hardly endured however to the present time. Were it not for its use for

mouthpieces of pipes and other smokers’ articles and the occasional

amber necklace to be seen, amber would hardly be known among the present

generation in our country.

Amber is a fossil gum of trees of the genus Pinus and is thus a

vegetable rather than mineral product. In color it is yellow, varying to

reddish, brownish and whitish. Its hardness is 2 to 2.5, it being

slightly harder than gypsum and softer than calcite. It cannot be

scratched by the finger nail but easily and deeply with a knife. It is

also brittle. Its specific gravity is scarcely greater than that of

water, the exact specific weight being 1.050-1.096. It thus almost

floats in water, especially sea water. It is transparent to translucent.

On being heated it becomes soft at 150 degrees and at 250 degrees to 300

degrees melts. It also burns readily and at a low temperature, a fact

which has given rise to the name of bernstein by which the Germans know

it, and to one of the Roman names for it, lapis ardens. Rubbed with a

cloth it becomes strongly electric, attracting bits of paper, etc. As

already noted, our word electricity comes from the Greek for amber, this

seeming to be one of the first minerals in which this property was

noted. Amber being a poor conductor of heat feels warm rather than cold

in the hand, contrary to most minerals. It is attacked but slowly by

alcohol, ether and similar solvents, a property by which it may be

distinguished from most modern gums and some other fossil ones. In

composition it is an oxygenated hydrocarbon, the percentages of these

elements being in an average sample, carbon 78.94, hydrogen 10.53 and

oxygen 10.53. The mineralogical name of amber is succinite, a word

derived from the Latin succum, juice. One of its constituents is the

organic acid called succinic acid.

The present source of most of the amber of commerce is the Prussian

Coast of the Baltic Sea, between Memel and Dantzig, although it is found

as far west as Schleswig-Holstein and the Frisian Islands and even

occasionally on the shores of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. From time

immemorial pieces of amber have been cast upon the shore in these

localities and their collection and sale has afforded a livelihood to

coast dwellers. Such amber is called sea stone or sea amber and is

superior to that obtained by mining, since it is usually of uniform

quality and not discolored and altered on the surface. Owing to its

lightness the amber is often found entangled in seaweed and the

collectors are accustomed to draw in masses of seaweed and search them

for amber. Amber so obtained is called scoopstone, nets being sometimes

used to gather in the seaweed. In the marshy regions men on horse-back,

called amber riders, follow the outgoing tide and search for the yellow

gum. It is also searched for by divers to some extent. From the earliest

times the title to this amber has vested in the State and its collecting

has been done either under State control or as at present when a tax is

levied by the government upon it. This tax is levied on the amber that

is mined as well as that obtained from the sea and brings a revenue at

the present time of about $200,000.

Up to 1860 the methods of procuring amber were largely confined to

obtaining it in the manner above noted. As it was evident however that

the sea amber came from strata underneath and that if either by dredging

or mining these strata could be reached a much larger supply could be

obtained, exploration was carried on by mining methods with successful

results, and the principal amount of the amber of commerce is now so

obtained. The strata as shown in the mines of Samland, the rectangular

peninsula of East Prussia where most of the mining is carried on, are:

First, a bed of sand; below this a layer of lignite with sand and clay,

and following this a stratum of greensand, fifty or sixty feet in

thickness. While all these strata contain scattered pieces of amber, it

is at the bottom of the greensand layer that the amber chiefly occurs,

in a stratum four or five feet thick and of very dark color. It is

called the “blue earth.” This stratum is of Tertiary age and there can

be no doubt that its amber represents gum fallen from pines which grew

at this period and whose woody remains are represented to some extent in

the layer of lignite. It is probably true as Zaddach remarks that the

amber has been collected here from older deposits. One of the most

interesting proofs of the vegetable origin of amber is the occurrence in

it of insects, sometimes with a leg or wing separated a little distance

from the body, showing that it had struggled to escape. These insects

include spiders, flies, ants and beetles, while the feather of a bird

has even been found thus preserved. Indeed the amber deposits have

furnished important contributions to our knowledge of Tertiary life.

Inasmuch as the pieces bearing such remains are valued more highly than

ordinary amber, unscrupulous persons have at times found profitable

employment in boring cavities into pieces of amber, introducing flies or

lizards into them and then filling up the hole with some modern gum of

the same color. It is said that all amphibious or water animals seen in

amber have been introduced in this way.

Besides the counterfeiting of the inclusions of amber there are several

substitutes for the gum itself. These are chiefly celluloid and glass,

the substitution of the former being dangerous if used for the

embellishment of pipes, on account of its inflammatory character.

Celluloid can be distinguished from amber by the fact that when rubbed

it does not become electric and gives off an odor of camphor instead of

the somewhat aromatic one of amber. It is also quickly attacked by

alcohol or ether, and when scraped with a knife gives a shaving rather

than a powder as amber does. Glass can be distinguished by its cold

feeling and greater specific gravity.

Besides these substitutes it has been found possible by heating and

pressing the scraps of amber not large enough for carving to make them

into a homogeneous mass which is sometimes sold as amber and sometimes

as amberoid. Amber is worked to desired shapes by turning it on lathes

or by cutting by hand. By heating it in linseed oil it becomes soft so

that it can be bent and often all opaque spots can be made to disappear

by such treatment. The amber which is most highly prized of any in the

world comes from Sicily. Eight hundred dollars have been paid for pieces

of this no larger than walnuts, making their value nearly equal to that

of diamonds. The beauty of the Sicilian amber consists in the variety of

colors which it displays, blood red and chrysolite green being not

uncommon, and the fact that these often exhibit a brilliant

fluorescence, glowing within with a light of different color from the

exterior. Chemically the Sicilian amber is not the same as the Prussian

as it contains less succinic acid and is somewhat more soluble. In other

respects it is not essentially different. It occurs chiefly on the

eastern and southeastern coasts being washed up in a manner very similar

to the Prussian amber.

Amber has been found in several places in the United States, but there

is little of commercial value. It is mostly connected with the

Cretaceous glauconitic or green sand deposits of New Jersey, fragments

being frequently found there. This amber is of yellow color but not so

compact or lustrous as foreign amber. Amber has also been reported from

the marls of North Carolina, some of the coal beds of Wyoming and in

connection with lignite in Alaska. In the latter region the natives are

said to carve it into rude beads.

Amber occurs in small quantities in several countries of Europe, such as

near Basel in Switzerland, near Paris in France, and near London in

England. It is also found in many parts of Asia, these localities being

a source of supply to the Asiatic countries such as China and India.

Occasionally amber is obtained from Mexico which has the beautiful

fluorescence of the Sicilian article, though the exact locality whence

it comes is not known. Specimens of carved amber are found among the

relics of the Aztecs and it is probable that they used it for incense.

The early use of amber by European peoples has already been referred to.

There are references to it in the most ancient literature and worked

masses of it are found among human relics of the greatest antiquity. Up

to comparatively modern times it was an important article of commerce

among widely scattered peoples and had much to do with bringing about

communication between them. Together with tin it was one of the chief

objects which led the Romans to penetrate the Gallic regions to the west

and north of the Mediterranean and Pliny says that “it had been so

highly valued as an object of luxury that a very diminutive human effigy

made of amber had been known to sell at a higher price than living men,

even in stout and vigorous health.” One of the most elaborate of the

Greek myths is that which accounts for the origin of amber. It runs in

this wise:—Phaethon, undertaking to drive the chariot of his sun god

father, Helios, lost control of his steeds and approaching too near the

earth set it on fire. Jupiter to stop him launched a thunder-bolt at

Phaethon and he fell dead into the Eridanus. His sisters lamenting his

death were changed into poplars and their tears became amber.

In the Odyssey one of Penelope’s admirers gives her an amber necklace,

and Martial compares the fragrance of amber to the fragrance of a kiss.

Milton writes of amber and Shakespeare mentions it both in “Love’s Labor

Lost” and “The Taming of the Shrew.”

Necklaces of amber are popular wedding presents among the peasants of

Prussia and they form an important feature of the ornaments worn by many

African chiefs.

The properties assigned to amber both as a charm and as a medicine have

been many. From the earliest times it has been used as an amulet, being

supposed to bring good luck and to protect the wearer against the evil

eye of an enemy. Necklaces of amber beads are used to this day as

preventive or curative of sore throat and the Shah of Persia wears

around his neck a cube of amber reported to have fallen from heaven in

the time of Mohammed, which is supposed to have the power of rendering

its wearer invulnerable. Amber was also taken internally in former times

as a cure for asthma, dropsy, toothache and other diseases and to this

day is prescribed by physicians in France, Germany and Italy for

different ailments.

The use of amber for artistic and decorative purposes has declined

considerably since the Middle Ages, but magnificent illustrations of its

employment for these purposes are to be seen in many European museums,

notably the Green Vaults of Dresden.

Though so soft and easily destructible a substance it endures with

ordinary care as well as the hardest stone, and works of art formed from

amber are as well preserved as any to be found.