When worked into ornaments, it is first split on a leaden plate, and then turned on a particular kind of whet-stone from Sweden. The polishing is done with chalk and water, or chalk and vegetable oil; and, lastly, the work is finished by rubbing the whole carefully with clean flannel. Amber often becomes very hot, and either flies into pieces, or takes fire during the splitting, cutting, or polishing. To prevent this, workmen keep the piece but a short time on the wheel, and the work is not interrupted by their alternating with a great many pieces. Workmen are frequently seized with a violent tremor in their arms and body, evidently caused by the electricity excited by the friction of the amber. Watch cases, mirror frames, sword handles, Scc. are formed, by joining together several cut and polished pieces of amber ; the extremities of the different pieces are streaked with linseed oil, and the whole is held over a charcoal fire, by which means the pieces become in timately united together. It is said that certain artists possess the art of softening amber to such a degree, that it can be run into moulds, and this without injuring its beauty. Specimens of amber, reported to have been liquefied in this manner, are said to be preserved in the electoral cabinet in Dresden.
Much of the amber of commerce is purchased by Ar menians, who are believed to dispose of it to the Egyp tian merchants, who carry it to Persia, China, and Ja pan; great quantities are also purchased by pilgrims in undertaking their journey to Mecca; and which they burn at the shrine of the prophet Mahomet. The most considerable amber manufactures are at Stolpen, Ko ningsberg, Danzig, Elbingen, and Lubeck. At the first mentioned place, there are manufactured annually umber ornaments to the value of from 50 to 60,000 do1 lars. It is also manufactured in Constantinople, Leg horn, Catanea, and Sicily. See Isaac 'Philo, disscrtatio
de succino Bursussorunt. Lips. 1663, 4to. J. '1'. Schenc kis, Preside, Dissert. de succino. Resp. Gottrf. Schultz. Jenx, 1671. 4to. Thomas Barth°linus, De succino ex perunenta in ejus Act. .11itftziens, 1571. p. 110, 115. De 9 UCCIni generatiune,resolutione et airibus. Act. hafniens, 1673, p. 306-314. Phil. Jacob Hartmzum. .S'ttccin. Prusszci historia, p. 291. Frankforti, 1677. 8vo. J. S. Elsholtius. De succino, fosszlz. Ephenz. Ac. Nat. Cur. Dec. 1. Ann. 9, and 10. p. 223-225. Philippo R. Schroeder° Preside, Dissert. dr jure succini in Re,gno Borussia-. Resp. ,Fgid. Negelrin. Regiomonti, 1722. L. Fr. Henckel. De succino fos•ili in .S'arOnia Act. Aced. Nat. Curios. vol. iv. p. 313-316. Von dem gegrabnen Bernstein im Churfiirstentham in seine Kleine Schrften, p. 589-552. Claude Louis Ilourdelin. Menzoire sue le Succin. them. de l'?cad. des Sc. de Pa ris, 1742. p. 143-175. J. Amb. Bearer's. Dr natura succini, Phil. Trans. vol. xlii. No. 468. p. 322-324. John Fothergill. An Extract of his Essay upon the Origin of Amber. Phil. Trans. vol. xliii. No. 472. p. 21-25. F. S. Bock's Versuch einrr KUrZen nat nrgeschichte des Preassischen Bernsteins, and eincr neuen wahrscheinlich en erkliirung seines unsprunges, p. 146. Koningsberg, 1767. 8vo. F. August Cartheuser von/ ursprunge des Bernstein's Mineralog. Abhandlung,I. p. 172-190.
Journal fur Fabrick, 1798. S. 399. Voight's Kleine Schriften. 1. Band. S. 235. N. Sendelis's Hzstoria Sac cinorzun Corpora aliena involventium et nature opere flic torum et calatorum, ex Regis Angustorum Cane/11s Dresdzx condhis aeri in•calpturam conscri/ita. lol. Luip sic. A. 1742. Parkinson's Organic Rexuins, vol. ii. Jameson's Mineralogy, vol. ii. See also ORYCTOGNOSY and GZOGNOSY. (r)