The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-02-13
DIAMOND CUTTERS.
Women as Workers With the Dust
Selecting and Dividing.
Difficult and Delicate Task of Getting
Jewels From Rough Stones
How 1t is Done.

Not all diamonds used are cut in Paris
or in Amsterdam, but in Geneva, close by
the Quai de la Poste, there is the 'Taillere
de Diamants of the Dupuis Brothers"
Not only that. but most of the diamond
cutters here are young women, tires in
telligente" and most attractive. They
receive, too, for work of the same kind as
that done by men the same rate OF COM
pensation, AMI many Of them earn,
though their hours are not long, from $40
to SIS a week. The establishment of Du-
puts Freres is in handsome granite
building, just at the head of the Coulou
vreniere. and occupies its second stage.
The building is triangular in form, with
its private offices near the apex. The
first of these is coy room where the
precious stones are kept after cutting in
huge iron SAFE which will be brought at
at your desire. Quarter, and half, and
almost pound packets of beautiful gems,
that are like showers OF dew III prllllaht
sunshine as you bury your hands among
them. They are all sizes, from the tinlest
rose diamond to others that are like sec
ond kOh-i-noOrS as they flash from the
velvet beds, for these larger diamonds are
kept carefully selected i'll cases instead OF
in the little tissue paper covered packets.
The variety of tint is simply wonderful
brown diamonds, green diamonds, yellow
diamonds, purest white diamonds, and,
rarest of all, the MeSSieurS DupuiS told
me, blue diamonds.
Nearly opposite the private Office is the
book keeping and recording room, and
the counter at which the elder NJ. Dupuis
sits asserting the gems as they come from
the cutting, and if diamond in the
crh of Snph sham that his SEiIlld
eye tells him it could not be cut to advan-
tage as found, he divides it into two or
three parts before it is carried to the
work-room. Both the asserting and the
dividing require the greatest skill and
most perfect acknowledgements intuitive
and practice-gained-o the stones, which
in their crude condition resemble, it
seems to me, bits and pieces of different
tinted gum arabic more than anything
else. As | have told you, the senior
member of the firm asserts and divides
| the diamonds, while the junior partner
himself keeps all the books and records
and apportions the stones TO their cutters,
| five at a time to each. marking the weight,
date and all opposite the cutters name,
| until they are returned completed. In
| this room, too, diamonds are received
for repair and recruiting. That reminds
me that in cutting almost one-half the
original weight OF the stone is lost, or,
more properly, cut away, for not grain
of the dust is really lost, as you will see:
The chief workroom or atelier is large,
bright, airy room, splendidly ventilated
and eXquisitely neat In it, about the
walls that form two sides of the triangle,
there are sufficient number of cutting
machines for about seventy-tive en-
ployes, and back OF these, close by the
windows. are seats and benches for the
girls who place the diamonds in the solder;
beds for the machine cutting, an opera
ton that must be performed very deity
for, first, there is the placing of one sol
der oval in the cup of the instrument
that receives the diamond, and that much
resembles the cup of cup and ball.
handle and all; then the other half must
receive just the right degree of fusion al