Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1903-07-22
KEPT HIS EYES OPEN.
Young Man IN Diamond Mines at kim
berIey Makes n Valuable
Discovery.

When the negro laborers descend
INTO the diamond mines at Kim be riley,
they hew out the hard diamontiferous
earth and put 1T in wooden tubs which
are hauled on stout wires to the sur
face, where the earthis spread over the
ground to undergo for several months
the softening influences of heat and
cold. When it is soft enough it is SHOW
eled into the washing machines, where
the dirt is separated from the rough
diamonds and other large mineral sub
stances. The mixture of minerals re-
manning is known as concentrates.
: Itwas necessary until recently to go
very carefully over the concentrates
to pick out the garnets and many other
foreign substances until nothing re-
NAMED but the rough diamonds. This
is slow and laborious operation, but
it has been an essential part Of the
mining industry until it was super
seeded by a discovery made awhile ago.
Among the employees in the sorting
room was Fred Kersten, a bright
young fellow, who quietly went to
work to try to discover a way to sep
arate the diamonds from other stones
more quickly and easily than could BE-
done by the slow process of hand pick
ing. He told no one of the problem
he was working at, but kept on with
his experiments, not, whit ydiscour-
aged by his many failures, to find an
efficient process.
One day, by the merest accident, he
made the discovery he was after. A
rough diamond and garnet happened
to be lying on a small board on the
bench where he was working. He hap
pened to pick up one end of the board,
when the garnet slipped off, but the
diamond remained. IS EE.f
This was a phenomenon worth in
vestigatin Kersten found that there
was coating of grease on the board
which had retained the diamond, while
the garnet slipped off.
He procured a wider board, coated
one side of it with grease and dumped
few handfuls of concentrates on it
Then he found that by holding the
board in a slightly inclined position
and vibrating it, all the concentrates
except the diamonds moved to the
lower end and fell off, while the dia
monds remained in place.
Then he invented machine by
which his discovery might be utilized
One part of his machine was slightly
inclined table coated with grease and
vibrating when the machine was il
motion. Another part was sort OF
hopper through which the concen
trates, with small current of water
passed to the surface of the vibrating
table. Considerable study was re
quired to perfect the apparatus, bu
at last the machine was completed anc
| the big diamond men were invited tt
witness the new method of separating
diamonds from the rest of the con
centrates.
The invention was an entire success
All the garnets and other minerals tina
are not wanted pass over the surfac,
of the table while every diamond
large or small, is retained. A NOR,
simple and complete device for saving
time, labor and loss of diamonds coult
not be invented. The entire work i
now done by machinery, hand pickin.
has been wholly superseded, and boil
the young inventor and the owners o
the diamond mines are profiting by tn
new labor saving device.