Marvel’s Reality Stones are real, spectacular rubies — and they’re on sale now
If you’ve ever wondered about rubies, this is the article for you.
When the story of ruby — the birthstone — was first written by alchemy author Nicolas Flamel in the mid-17th century, it was about rubies and not stones.
In his books, Flamel theorized that rubies were stones: that is, they were stones of gold that glowed at the point of contact with the flame, with no air in the gaps between the particles. He wrote that the ruby “is composed of three parts, the colour, the value, and the form,” and that there must also be a “principle that is invisible — and it is by that alone that the ruby is created.”
The story changed when, in the 19th century, Pierre-Simon Laplace, a French physicist who was also the first to derive the laws of science from Newton’s mechanics, suggested to Flamel that rubies were actually gems.
There were many theories about rubies over the years, with different authors claiming that the precious stones could be anything from a rare form of carbon to a rare mineral to a substance that is found inside certain fish. In fact, Rublium, the name of the mythical gem that appears in the Bible (or, rather, the Hebrew Bible), comes from the ancient Greek word meaning “rare earth” — and is often used to denote diamonds.
Rubies are still rare. They are not found on the planet Earth, and there are probably less than 10,000 rubies in the entire world. Because they’re rare, they can be extremely hard to come by. And they’re extremely costly — each one costs about $100,000.
All of these factors mean that you have to be able to read a lot of stone lore to actually find one. So, how on earth did the world become so steeped in the mystery of rubies? Well, I’m going to tell you. This is the story of how I was born into the rubies.
How I Became an Expert in Ruby
Because I was raised during a time when all of the world’s knowledge was based on stone lore, we kids were given a lot of knowledge about rubies.
But as most kids do, I wanted something more, like something more exciting.
