The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-03


From the New York sun.
Nothing in nature is oftener looked
for and more easily found than the dia-
mond. and many supposed finds prove dis
appointments. The fine diamond should
be clear and pure as rock water, perfect
IN shape. and not only pure white, but
lively showing fire. as it is termed. Any
undecided tint of brown, yellow, gray, or
other color is a positive blemlsh The
simplest test to identify the diamond
is to hold the stone firmly against a wet
rapidly revolving grindstone for from five
to ten minutes. If the least mark appears
upon the piece it is not a diamond, for
If it were a diamond so far from any
mark being produced on it, it would be
likely on the other hand, to make a deep
impression in the grindstone. The same
test may be made with emery paper, or
an emery wheel, neither of which, al
though harder than a grindstone, will
make any impression upon a diamond
We often hear 1t said that a number
of different stones will cut glass. The
truth is, that only the natural edge of
diamond crystal will cut glass, while
many stones such as the sapphire. ruby.
quartz and even common paste, will
scratch it.
sumo uldInOUuS exhibit an abnormal de-
gree OF hardness, especially some very
beautiful black ones from Borneo. which
cannot be ground or polished by any
/ thing but their own dust ordinary dia-
mond dust, frequently, having no effect
! upon them at all. one OF these was made
| the subject Of special experiment by Bah
/ met OF Paris, in behalf of the French
| Academy of Sciences. 1t showed great
| resistance to the polishing wheel and
Inc me process Of preparing it took a very
a similar experiment was made in this
! country IN 1880 and 1856 by myself at
1 Messrs Tiffany & Co.'S New York The
/ stone here was a round piece of Brazilian
1 bort, with radiated internal structure.
| u was Kept on polishing wheel made
! OF hard iron with a diameter of one foot
/ Tor seven and one-half hours a day for
nine months, the wheel turning at the
/ rate OF 100 to 1900 revolutions per min
! ute, and giving three feet of travelling
/ surface to the stone. The total distance
/ traVersed was 40, 600 miles, or about sew
en- times the circumference of the globe,
1 out the result was the polishing of only
/ about one square centmeter of surface
/ With an ordinary diamond fully a hun
/ dred times as much would have been ac-
/ complished.
! Diamonds vary widely in hue; the
| purest are perfectly colorless and trans
/ parent, but they are found in almost
4 every color of the spectrum, the COM
/ monest being white, yellow or brown,
\. yellowish green, bottle green, and rarely
| rose red, blue, or black. Next to the
! yelow~greenish, yellow diamonds are the
! most numerous. The black are very rare
| and when the diamond is taken between
/ the brown and the black, it's Transparent
! cy entirely disappears, or is seen only
| at the angles.
Perfectly colorless diamonds come
| from the mines of India, Brazil the Cape
| and Australia Perhaps about 10 per
| cent. of the crystals which come into
the market are eolorless or of pure white;
| one-fourth are of fair color, with a flaw
| or spot of color, and the remainder are
| off-colored, called second quality, or by
water Nearly one-haf is only bort.
1 NtOlOTon diamonds exhibit lfIgtrP
| and clearness best when cut, especially
the yellow ones, which by artificial light
| are very brilliant. Stones either per-
| fectly colorless or having decided tints of
| rose-red, green, or blue are most highly
| priced. Fine cinnamon and salmon tints,
| or brown, black, or yellow stones, are also
| esteemed. If fiawless and without tint
| of any kind, they are termed first
water" II they possess a steely blue
are called blue-white. Such are usually
| Brazilian stones.
| gems, and for such there is no fixed value
/ the price depending on their purity, per-
lection, and brilliancy, freedom from
/ flaws 1t is impossible to estimate the
| value of a diamond by its weight alone,
| as color, brilliancy, cut, and general per-
| lection must all be taken into account
4 ing ten carats each. one may be worth
/ 5000, and the other $4,000. Exceptional
stones often bring special prices, where
/ as off-colored or imperfect stones sell
/ at from $50 to $50 carat, regardless OF
their size.
| AS the diamond is a solid substance a
| mist is formed by breathing on it, and
| the mist being white, enables us to de-
! tect any color in the stone; or If the stone
| is unset it may be placed on sheet of
white paper and breathed on, and while
/ the mist is clearing away the Iaintest
trace of color, and even flaws and inn
| perfectiOns. If visible to the naked eye,
/ will become apparent. If the stone is
/ unset and we fold a sheet of paper and
| look down on the side of the stone we
/ gpTn fhut CT Naeffh -,
for the same reason that piece of plate
4 glass when looked through appears deep
/ green on the ends. A small pile or paper
/ of diamonds VIII show color, whereas
/ single stone may appear white to the I'M
/ practised eye; as likewise sheet of plate
4 glass one-fOurth of an inch thick and one
foot long is seen to be green, though a
| piece one inch square appears white, the
color in both cases being condensed in
For this reason off-colored diamonds are
frequently cut with a very low, fiat crown,
| (the part of the stone above the center)
/ This DISCUSSES the color, though at loss
In many diamonds the interior of the
| crystal, the core as it is called, is not
/ clear but shows greenish or blackisn
spots. particularly in the green stones
Many have also feathers" and assures
| which impair the passages of light.
/ Nv means of chemical agents and high
temperature Barbot claims to have sue
I ceeded in removing the coloring matter
/ from rough diamonds; green, red and yell
I low stones becoming perfectly colorless
while the dark yellow. brown and black
gave up very little of their color. This
seems scarcely possible, though NJ. Bar
bot. on the title page of one of his works
| STYLES himself, Inventor of a process to
! decolorize a rough diamond De Boot
| made the same claim in 1905 and in 1880
| the English government granted patent
| for the same process.
De Boot SAYS that his imperial patron
| Rudolph II, possessed a secret which en-
| ahled him to clear any diamond Of flaws
/ and color No such process Is now known
| and a fortune would await its discoverer
| 1t is claimed that some yellow diamonds
| turn LAX upon heating, like topaZes. but
! unlike them, resume their former color
The ,Aiamond is one of the gems most
| readily identified by the aye and ii Is
r.ext f., impossible to dec ii e an expert
| eaced dealer. Let one of several imita-
/ TONS or even such precious stones as
| white topaz, sapphire, bsryl phenacite
| etc. be put among a lot Of thousands of
Diamonds. While a dealer i, counting he
can al a glance detect the false ones and
/ throw them out without mssing the
count even if ne is countiIs three at a
time, more rapidly than bills could be
/ counted.
The various tests described by the press.
I SuCb the USQ q acids files