I have a few stone parcels labeled Linde Created Emeralds.
Does anyone know the background to this stone. These are very nice
cab stones. Not any of the stones are larger than a carat in size,
and are lightly included to resemble a genuine emerald. Timelines
between chatham and linde will help with the history. Did Linde
create the chatham and sell the idea?Any info will help. These
probably came from a purchase in the eighties from a company called
Goldmaster in the state of Florida when this manufacturing company
sold there business. There are so many other questions I would like
to ask, but this one seemed to pop in my head first. Thanks
Brad Baumgartle
Baumgartle & Co. Inc.
Southern Indiana
Jewelry Manufactures
No, Chatham is a flux process, Linde is hydrothermal and lacks the
beautiful (IMO) wispy, veil-like flux inclusions the Chathams have.
However, the Linde may have some interesting two-phase inclusions,
along with phenakite inclusions. For this reason, it’s not
recommended that a gemologist attempt to separate them by inclusion
observation alone. At any rate, the Linde and Chatham synthetic
emeralds are markedly different.
Any info will help. These probably came from a purchase in the
eighties from a company called Goldmaster in the state of Florida
when this manufacturing company sold there business. There are so
many other questions I would like to ask, but this one seemed to
pop in my head first. Thanks
Actually, the Linde hydrothermals were last made (and may still be, I
don’t know for certain) by a company named Regency and Biron.
Goldmaster may have sold them, but R&B had likely manufactured them.
With the advent of “soude” emeralds (synthetic spinel triplets) in
use as substitute birthstone materials, synthetic emeralds are
becoming less available. I’m still looking for a flux-grown emerald
with lots of veils to add to my gemological collection that won’t
bite so deeply into my wallet.
Find yourself a copy of Kurt Nassau’s “Gems Made by Man.” The whole
story is in there. I’d give you the gist except I can’t find my own
copy. Probably lent it to someone - a sadly common fate for a good
book. Try inter-library loan if you are (as I am) in a
low-population area.
In researching the “Stones of Fate and Fortune” TV series I also
wanted to know more about Linde emeralds. So I contacted the Linde
company. Their corporate person not only had no
knowledge of emeralds ever being made by Linde but in addition got
just a bit miffed when I insisted that yes they had been. Corporate
memories are of short duration.
Cheers,
Hans Durstling
in Moncton, Canada
photographing designer cabs the whole day long
The plant where Linde first made rubies (I don’t know about
emeralds) is 1/2 mile from here and is now owned by Praxair. I think
they make specialized polishing compounds there now. The address is
Praxair, Polco St, Speedway IN 46224 USA
The Linde and the Chattam were completely separate. All I
remember from my GIA class about Linde created emeralds is that
they are good quality and the company is out of business.
Linde is the Linde Air Products division of Union Carbide. Has Union
carbide really gone out of business?
I worked at Linde growing garnets and other crystals at the same
time the emeralds were being grown (early 60s). They were grown using
the hydrothermal technique (versus Chatham’s flux technique). One
problem was that they were too good. The usual flaws found in natural
emeralds were not found in the Linde synthetics - jewelry dealers
didn’t find them natural looking. Another problem was that while the
natural gems do not fluoresce in the UV, the Linde stones did. A dead
give away. Linde spent a little over a year on the experiment and
then dropped their effort.