Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1880-07-09
DIAMONDS.
Their Value, Uses and History.

The earliest known home of the gem
was in India. From India it made its
way westward tothe Greeks, who, among
its many remarkable qualities, singled
out its pre-eminent hardness as that by
which it was thenceforward to be distin-
guished when known, and detected when
doubtful. They named it adanlas, the
indomitable, and invented fables in illus
tration Of this character, which passed
current and unquestioned for many hun
dreds of years. Such was the obduracy
of the genuine diamond, they maintain
ed, that the attempt to break it between
hammer and anvil resulted, not in the
fracture of the stone, but in the rending
of the metal; and numerous gems of the
purest water were inundated, generation
after generation, to the blind tradition of
this ordeal by iron. There was, indeed,
it was added, one method by which this
otherwise invincible resistance could be
overcome. Immersion for a certain time
in warm goats blood rendered the crys-
tai amenable to the blows of the ham
mer.
When the Koh-i-noor was being recut
in 1852, the jeweler to whose care it was
intrusted during the operation submitted
it to the inspection of one of his most
valued customers, who heedlessly let it
slip through his fingers. The jeweler,
seeing it fall, all but lost his senses with
terror, and called forth similar access
of retrospective dismay in his distin-
guished visitor by explaining that if the
jewel had touched the ground at GER
tain angle, it would almost infallibly
have separated into fragments.
Benvenuto Cellini relates that he owed
his life to the avarice of an apothecary
in substituting powdered beryl for the
diamond dust which he had been been
bribed to mix with his salad; and the
same pseudo-deadly substance was adj
ministered to Sir Thomas Overbury in
the Tower. On the other hand, the Ro-
mans regarded it as sure remedy, not
only against poison, but against various
other perils, and the conviction of its
mystical virtues continued to prevail
throughout the Middle Ages. 1t was
said to confer valor, to insure victory, to
repel witchcraft and madness, to give
success in lawsuits. Pliny is careful to
tell us that, if worn on the left arm,
touching the skin, it dispels nocturnal
panic; and Sir John Vaudeville adds
that itshould be given freely, not bought
or sold.
Diamond superstitions, in our days,
seem to have taken refuge in the East
The Shah of Persia is said to possess one
set, in cimeter, which has the power Of
rendering the carer invisible, and the
great diamond of the Rajah of Mattan,
in Borneo, weighing 367 carats, and sup
posed to be the largest in existence, is
credited with the virtue, not of tails.
man alone, but of a panacea as well
The natives of the island believe that
water in which it has been immersed
cures every disorder; and the vast price
offered forit by the governor of Batavia
OF $4,000, two ships of war fully equip.
ped, together with sundry arms and mu.
nitions, was refused, not because of the
intrinsic value of the jewel, but because
the fortunes of the dynasty were tradi.
tionally affirmed to depend upon its pos.
session.
1t appears to be commonly lost sight
of, that these gems have commercial
value entirely Independent of their deco
rative purpose. A peculiar modification
of diamond, known as ''carbonado. >
which is as unsightly as cast iron, is sold
for use in ck-boring machines, at an
average price of four and half to five
dollars the carat. Carbonate" resem-
bles in appearance certain meteoric
stones of blackish-brown hue and crys-
talline texture. 1t is composed of the
same material as diamond, and is in fact
supposed to be diamond which has some
how got spoiled in the making. 1t is
found in masses of from one to two
pounds weight, and only in the neighbor-
hood of Bahia, for the Jumps of carbon
occasionally met with in South Africa
are deficient in hardness, and thus seem
to have been arrested at a still carrier
stage of their progress toward mineral
perfection. Bort, " which is another de-
icient member of the diamond family,
but is nevertheless also highly priced in
the arts, consists in an aggregation of
tiny crystals, mixed, like the black dia-
mords of Borneo, with certain proper
ton of amorphous carbon.