The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1854-05-30
rHE IARaE MANCHESTER DIAMOND.

THE LARGE MANCHESTERD DIAMOND
We have had the pleasure Of o call from
Mr.. Moore, the owner of the remarkable d.
amond which has recently been dug up in the
streets Of Manchester, opposite this city.
Mr.. Moore was accompanied by Capt sa-
muel w. Dewey, privategentleman, whose
enthusiasm in the cause of science has led
him to devote the last FIVE years, at his own
expense. TO mineral explorations in Virginia.
some of the results of which he has shown
us in a splendid collection of mineral speci-
mems. including elastic sandstone, lone of
the greatest mineral curiosities we ever saw
porphyry of most beautiful kind, marble,
gold, iron, copper, lime, coal, &c, &c. In a
word the mineral discoveries of Capt Dewey
in the mountains and along the streams west
of Danville, have been truly wonderful, and
We quite agree with the sentiment quoted
from an intelligent gentleman in Pittsylva-
mia, by the Enquirer, 'fhat the whole people
Of the Dan and Yadkin country owe debt of
gratitude to Capt Dewey, which they will
never be able to pay" The Enquirer sug-
gests that Capt Dewey's magnificent collec-
ton of mineral specimens ought to belong to
the University of Virginia, suggestion
which we heartily approve.
We find description of the beautiful dia
mond shown to us by Mr.. Moore, in a commu
nication published by scientific gentleman
in the Richmond Enquirer, and can bear our
own testimony. so far as we know anything
of the subject, to the correctness of the de-
scription:
A short time since Mr. Benjamin Moore. a wor.
thy industrious, hard working resident OF Manches
ter, opposite this city, while digging and removing
from one of the recently laid out public streets,
| few cart loads of hitherto undisturbed alluyium
for James Fisher ESQ, of that town, SO fortu-
nate as to discover nthe ferruginous clay EARTH
about two feet below the surface, near several
ter.wornround pieces of secondary sand stone
what, at the time he supposed to be simply very
pretty fragment of sparkling, transparent glass,
but which, in reality, is truly beautiful and valua
BILE diamond, weighing 1s "a carats or IS grains;
measuring from extreme point TO point rather above
seven lines, and worthy OF being styled Nonpa
rei, if not ON moor, Sun Of LigM,) not only
because it is by far the largest found on the
continent oil North America, but more especially
on account of its superior limpidness which is
nearly perfect with the exception OF slight green
ish tnge and partial chafoyancy arising from the
salient edges OF its apparently infinite number of
lamna, and in part perhaps, attributable to the
multiplicity of minute strise, curvinear and
straight lines, and the miniature craven equilate-
raj trisnges that embellish its surface, and most
emphatically "show exertions OF power di-
vine."
In form. it might be termed rhombic dodeca-
hebron similar to the supposed original form OF the
celebrated KohiNoor. or Mountain of Light dia-
mond. presented by the East India Company to
Queen Victoria; although it probably approaches
nearer to the figure of regular octahedron, con-
sistng of two four sided pyramids, obliquely united
at their bases the planes or faces being convex and
each triangular face of the primitive octahedron,
being replaced by or divided into six secondary
trianeles bounded by curvilinear lines, producing,
in the aggregate forty-eght faces and presenting In
outline rounded or spheroidal appearance. And
regards invncibility and other unmistakeable
characteristics of the genuine adamas or diamond,
treadily scratches rather cuts glass and the har
dest agates without becoming in the least abraded
defaced, and by having successfully withstood for
two hours the most intense heat possible, to be ge
nerated with charcoal in a common smiths forge,
it may with propriety be considered indestructi-
Bile by ordinary fire.
1t refracts singly and, if rubbed on dry cloth or
leather. acquires positive electricity; and. on being
suddenly removed from the suns rays into the dark,
it sends forth sparks of light resembling fairy like
blazing stars bordering upon, if not coming fully
up to, Hauy' description of the diamonds remar-
kable and peculiar phosphorescent powers, where,
he says, the diamond, though in most cases. color
less ITSELF s still capable of dazzling the eye by its
brilliant and playful colors constantly fugitive but
perpetualy returning"
The value of this diamond is estimated,
we understand, at between theree and four
thousand dollars