AMBER

AMBER is a fossil resin, generally yellow and semi-transparent or translucent. This fossilized substance is hard and its typical colour is honey-yellow. The colour of this substance is also called amber, the yellow colour which is used in modern traffic signals on the roads as cautionary signal (caution) between green (go) and red (stop).

It is presumed that this substance is derived from certain extinct coniferous trees of the Tertiary period. It becomes electric by friction, and gives name to electricity, the Greek word for it being 'electron'. It has been fished up for centuries in the Baltic Sea. It is found chiefly along the southern shores of the Baltic. Sometimes amber pieces are found containing trapped bodies of insects.

It has been used in jewelry since antiquity, and is now used in varnishes and for tobacco pipes.