Whitby Jet is known the world over for its beautiful soft texture, dense black colour and very high polish. There are two theories as to the origin of jet. One is that of the geologist; Professor Hemingway of Newcastle University believes that jet is a form of carbon - a coal, not unlike lignite.

Many craftsmen believe, after working with both jet and amber, that the two are from similar sources. In the days of the saurians, the Dinosaur, Tyrannosaur and others, trees grew to great heights and the sap from some of them flowed down the trunks and filled hollows nearby. Covered by earth, leaves and other natural debris, these seams of sap hardened through the long years until they were exposed as jet or amber.

This particular theory is borne out by the fact that bolts of stone have been found well inside solid pieces of jet - and also by the experience of the craftsmen. This period and, later, the Carboniferous and Eolithic, also gave us Ammonites, known as fossils, and impressions of these are frequently found on the tops of seams of jet. Jet is found in seams in the bituminous shales, between Robin Hood's Bay and Boulby, which extend under the sea and often pieces broken away by bad weather yield jet, which is washed up in various sized pieces as far afield as Bridlington and Saltburn.

This is known in the trade as 'washed jet'. For many thousands of years the jet deposits lay miles inland, the glacier which cut out the Esk Valley eventually parting them and removing a three mile portion of their length. The passing glacier covered the deposits with clay, which was eroded by the sea, until the cliffs of today were left. The shales can be seen exposed at Sandsend to the west and Saltwick to the east between which limits no jet is found. Jet from the shales to the east of Whitby is poor in quality, possibly due to the effect of alum deposits adjacent to the jet-bearing shales.

For this reason, too, washed jet is not very valuable, since each piece has to be painstakingly examined by a craftsman who, scraping each piece minutely with his knife, separates the good from the poor. Among the people who find jet are fishermen who, forced to remain on shore by bad weather, often spend an afternoon looking around on the Scaur; beachcombers, who searching for anything useful, pick up pieces of jet and members of a race now practically extinct - the 'jetties'.

In the old days, men used to make a living out of supplying jet and ammonites (fossils) to the craftsmen: these men were called 'jetties' and some are still in business, only, however, part-time. These men obtained jet from the cliffs, waiting for a cliff fall, encouraging such falls or roughly mining the jet in caves. Lastly, all sorts of people bring in jet, those who know what it looks like and those who do not: glass, shale, coal, erinoid, vulcanite and plastics all make their appearance, some found on the beach but most resurrected from some family treasure trove, hidden away against the day when its value might saw! The jet is bought from all these people by the craftsmen at so much per pound, depending on the quality and size of the pieces.

Once the craftsmen has his hands on the jet the process of working the jet can begin. The rough jet is first sorted into pieces of according to size taking into account faults in the stone and other factors likely to prove important. The pieces are then 'chopped-out', cut roughly, using a tungsten steel chisel, the handle of which is loaded with lead and all the work here is done by the wrists, no mallet being used. The pieces are then ground into a closer likeness to the shape of the finished article on a carborundum or sandstone revolving. grindstone.

The pieces are then ready to be 'leaded'. By applying the 'side' of the wheel, which removes the deep score marks caused by the grindstone, the jet is given a flat smooth surface and pattern cuts being created by the 'edge' of the wheel. The wheel in this stage is made in a frying pan. Lead, a little antimony, and some tin are melted in a frying pan, fitted with a centre post around which the lead flows making the spindle hole. An edge is put on to the wheel, whilst it is revolving at high speed, using a cold chisel held to the wheel.

The craftsman now moves on to a series of brushes and wheels, the largest about a foot in diameter, the smallest less than six inches. First, the 'brush' is used (the only brush known as such). This is a revolving pig's bristle brush and is fed by a mixture of 'rotten-stone' (a mild abrasive) and water. This means that the craftsman scoops up handfuls of a special type of mud - which must have come from rivers that have passed over slate beds and must be pure and of a creamy consistency - and applies this to his brush. On this wheel he coarsely brushes the articles.

After this process the craftsman moves to his 'listing-board', another wheel made of pure wool strips wrapped round and round the centre hole until they form a closely wound spiral, twelve inches across and two inches deep. The board is wetted and the articles from the 'brush' are applied to its sides to polish flat parts and edges. Next the articles are taken from the listing-board to a bowl of water, where they are carefully hand brushed to remove all traces of the rotten-stone, which would cause stains in the polishing stages later, especially in the cut parts.

The pieces are then dried in fine sawdust, which falls away easily and does not scratch the smooth surface. The craftsman then moves on to the 'rouge-wheel', a softer brush of pure hair. This is fed with lamp black, paraffin and a little linseed oil - the craftsman's own substitute for jewellers' rouge, which was used in earlier days but gave the stone a reddish glow. This brush brings out the fine deep black glow characteristic of the finished article and is used mainly for carved and cut work. Should the article have flat surfaces, these are polished in the same way on a 'rouge-board' made of porpoise hide, fed with the usual lamp black mixture.

Finally, the cut surfaces are finished off on a 'shag-board' or 'buff', so called because of its shaggy edges, which is made of soft leather. In all, each piece is handled over ten times, but this is not the full process. There are, in addition, certain specialised jobs done in the past by three men who concentrated on one particular job, but, nowadays, these are all done by the same man, who must be a craftsman in all three processes as in the other equally specialised work.

These three jobs are carving, bead-making and inlaying. Carving is an art in itself and is done from first to last by the craftsman, from rough jet to finished article (except for the polishing) all with several knives made from sharpened steel files wrapped with chamois leather to make handles, the blades being of various shapes and sizes. Beads are turned out of cylindrical pieces of jet and for the purpose of 'working' are held between finger and thumb. Frequently, the beads are only one sixteenth of an inch in diameter and as they must be applied to a revolving brush, bleeding sores in the craftsman's finger and thumb are often the result.

The beads are drilled using umbrella spokes ground to a triangular point - modern twist drills have been tried but they break up the jet. The beads are then laid out in a special grooved board and threaded. Inlaying is also a virtual art form, and a very complex business. The articles are processed up to the grindstone stage; then mother-of-pearl is carved into the right shape, such as a flower or leaf spray or a model of the Abbey.

The model is then laid down on the flat surface of the jet and marked round with a pencil. The space within the line is then cut out using heavy and light knives until the pearl can be fitted flush with the top of the jet. The pearl is then seated in the hollow and surrounded by the jet craftsman's own adhesive 'okkamututt', a compound of Collins' liquid glue and shellac. When the warm glue has been squeezed out by gentle pressure on the pearl, the excess is spread into a thin layer to cover its surface, which is later brushed off after it has dried hard to reveal the mother-of-pearl, its beauty accentuated by the fine dark lines of the cut markings.

Engraving is another quite separate craft, done by a specialist or even by the multi-talented craftsman of today. This consists of scratching off the surface of the polished jet to produce etchings on the duller surface underneath . When several articles, such as tables and chairs, are made up of more than one piece, these pieces are joined by the 'tutt' as strongly as if they were solid jet. The method of working jet has not changed in 150 years. The only innovation has been the introduction of electric motors to turn the lathes.

Jet beads, irregular in shape, but undoubtedly beads, have often been found in the burial places (barrows) of the bronze-age people who lived approximately 10,000 years ago. It is thought that the shiny stone might have been worn to ward off evil spirits. The Romans also had great liking for jet and jet objects are often found on Roman sites, these including hair pins, bracelets, medallions and finger rings; jet rings were found in excavations at Hunteliff and Normanby in the 1920's. It was often mentioned in history, and the fourteenth century poet Chaucer talks of a Gate of bright black stone found in Yorkshire and worn by followers of fashion.

The following is a quotation from an old book on Yorkshire (1610): 'Ounsbury hill, besides a spring of medicinal watersfor the eyes is a Prognostication unto her Neighbours; whose head being covered with a cloudy cap presageth some Tempestuous Stormes of Showres to follow so doth another place neare Moulgrafe Castle, where is found blacke amber of Jette; some take it to be Gagetes in olde time at Gemme and precious Stone of great estimation.' The early jet workers were quite aware of the electrical properties of jet and they also attributed to it other, more doubtful, properties.

The thin smoke produced by energetically rubbing the jet was supposed to be potent in dissolving spells and enchantments and curing patients who had been 'overlooked' by someone possessed of the evil eye. On occasion it might be employed to drive away devils and for this virtue it had to thank its blackness which matched that of the devil. In the early part of the nineteenth century, probably about 1807, a witch was cast out of her home at Egton and a jet cross was fastened over the door to prevent the evil spirit returning. About 1800 a Whitby painter and publican together manufactured some rough beads and crosses with files and knives.

Shortly afterwards a Naval Pensioner came to live in Whitby and introduced these two to turning the jet, an operation which he had observed with amber; through time the employer became a local silversmith, who added more turners. From these beginnings the trade gradually increased. Around the years 1840 to 1860 there were quite a number of jet workers who sold their jewellery, to families of deceased persons.

When Albert, the Prince Consort, died, Queen Victoria bought and wore masses of jet and as a result the trade received much publicity and entered a boom period. By 1870 there were fifteen hundred men, women and children employed in the jet industry, and Whitby Jet was sent to all parts of the world. But mourning, which gave the trade its boom, killed it. People associated it with death and funerals and gradually found it distasteful to wear. They lost sight of the fact, realised more today, that jet is an excellent foil for red, green, gold and other colours.

Also a factor in the decline of the popularity of jet was the unscrupulous manner in which certain people exploited the demand by importing cheap, inferior jet from France and Spain, as well as offering for sale large quantities of spurious imitations, such as ebonite, wood, glass and others which are still being mistaken for jet today.