The Jacobean death and pearl bullets part two.... pearl | noun 》a dense variously colored and usually lustrous concretion formed of concentric layers of nacre as an abnormal growth within the shell of some mollusks and used as a gem Basically, a when something gets into a mollusk's shell (grain of sand, etc) the mollusk covers the irratant with nacre to protect itself. After all, inside the mollusk is all super soft tussue. Getting a grain of sand stuck in its shell is roughly the equivalent of getting a grain of sand stuck in your eye. Ouch! Still one mollusk's irritant is another man's treasure. Speaking of.... The vast majority of mollusks DO NOT produce pearls. At least not as we think of them. It used to take searching through hundreds of mollusks to find even one viable pearl. Today most pearls are farmed. With the irritant placed in the correct breed of mollusk a pearl can be formed in 6 months. The pearl produced follows the form of the irritant. Round core means round pearl. This helps the jewelry industry produce near identical pearls (and lots of them). Yay science! HOWEVER, it means farmed pearls are not solid nacre. Imitation pearls often made from mother-of-pearl, so it's basically reshaped nacre. Completely fake pearls are some other mater covered in a chemical treatment to paint that gives them the pearlescent quality. Fun facts ・You can tell the difference between farmed pearls and natural pearls by looking at their x-rays. ・You can tell the difference between fake and real by rubbing them on your teeth 》real pearls are slightly rough due to nacre being a layered substance. Now, I've studied etymology and and the history of phrases my entire life. I have to say that 'pearl' has one of the most boring histories I've ever come across. To quote Wikipedia : "The English word pearl comes from the French perle, originally from the Latin perna meaning leg, after the ham- or mutton leg-shaped bivalve." (Only quoting wiki because it's a lovely sentence that says almost word for what Oxford, Webster, and several etymology books and sites say. The only really interesting bit being that the meaty end of a Christmas ham really does have the same shape as a mollusk. Great. . . Now I'm hungry. Foooood...... We'll talk about pearls and their potentiality as weapons tomorrow. TO BE CONTINUED. . . . .
