Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-07-26
Diamonds.

Diamond me no diamonds" writes
Mr.. TennysOn, but for the nOnce we feel
disposed to disregard the Injunction OF
the poet, and to bring before our readers
few of those things which are not gen.
orally known in connection with these
precious stones. Attacking cur subject
du fond, We find that the diamond is
pure carbon crystahzed, and that 1t is
known in three different molecular
states, viz, crystalized, crystalline and
amorphous. The crystalized diamond is
the stone used in jewelry; the crystalline
is known as "boart," and reducedt to pow
der for cutting crystaliZed gems and the
amorphous suffers a similar fate, being
largely used by the Swiss watchmakers
for polishing the rubies with which their
watches are jeweled. The commercial
name of the latter is the carbonic dia-
mond. 1t will be no news to any to
learn that the diamond cuts glass with
great facility, but it is not generally
known that not every stone can be used
for that purpose, as it is requisite to find
one whose angles are naturally acute.
Most gems will scratch glass, but the di-
amond is the only stone capable of cut
ting it. Called adamant (tEe indomita-
ble) by the Greeks, the diamond quite
justi6es the designation. being the hard
est known substance. 1t is, however,
very brittle, and being composed of inf
nitely thin lamine, deposited over each
other, slight blow struck in the direc-
tion OF this lamlnR will cause it to split.
From the authors of antiquity we find
that the ancients credited the diamond
with several properties which it certain
ly does not possess; one of these prop
critics being its inability to acquire
warmth when exposed to heat. the falla-
cy of which opinion was conclusively es-
tablshed when the first diamond was
burnt at the Academy of Florence, in
1884, by means of powerful burning
glasses. The stone in question first split,
then emitted sparks, and finally disap-
peared, leaving no trace behind. An
other idea was that it would resist, with
out breaking, the blow of hammer;
and this characteristic ismentiOned both
by Lucretlus and Piny. The latter,
speaking OF the adamas-which most
parties agree must have been the dia-
mond-says: These stones are tested
with the hammer and anvil, and resist
the blow to such an extent as to make
the iron rebound, and the anvil split
asunder. 10th to disagree with so en-
inent writer, we would only remark
that diamonds will not stand such a test
nowadays, and that SO long ago as
1916 the Swiss soldiery, who subjected
the jewels Of Charles the Bold to a simi-
lar process, found that crushed diamonds
were OF no great marketable value. Dia-
monds are of various colors, including
blue, green, orange, pink, yellow, brown
and black; but the most valuable stones
are those perfectly eolorless, when they
are said to be of the purest water. The
diamond Is also occasionally opalescent.
Among the various properties possessed
by this gem is that of flashing out the
colors of the rainbow, and it will also
become phosphoreseent on exposure to
the light, the smaller diamonds acquir-
ing that state by much shorter expos
ure than those of larger size. When cut,
the diamond is known as the brilliant,
rose diamond or rosette, and table dia
mond. The brilliant form is the most
beautiful, as the lustre of the stone is
then displayed to the greatest advantage.
Strange to say, in this age of science, no
one has yet proposed theory which
could account Sor the formation of the
diamond, nor has any satisfactory con-
clusion been arrived at with regard to
the matters which lend tinge or color
to the gem.