Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-21

In the mines: must accept them In the pro-
portion In which they are found; must take
| whole series none. The individual
diamonds In each parcel usually weigh
anywhere from one to twenty carats In the
rough. Forty to sixty per cent Of this
weight Is afterward ground and polished
away by the cutter.
In the past decade our American diamond
cutters have attained a rank equal to those
or Antwerp, Amsterdam Paris. The
principal innovation introduced by our cut
tiers Is a method of saving small rough
crystals through the center in order to
economize surface to be polished. An old
method was to saw large diamonds in two
with fiat lead straps charged on the edges
With diamond dust. But now the rough
stones are held firmly under pressure
against rapidly revolving disks of sheet
iron. Only 2 per cent of their weight is
lost by this method. AS soon as the inYen-
ton became known the syndicate advanced
the price of all rough stones whose value
might be enhanced by the process Dia-
monds are polished by being ground on
t-sks of soft steel covered with diamond
dust and oil.
Seeking New Mines.
The prospect now is that the diamond in
dustry must die out-for a time at least
when these great mines of South Africa be-
1 come exhausted. India famed in history a 5
the great diamond country reported no out
put last year. The old mines of Brazil are
about played out. but a company formed in
London lately set out for the Sierra de
Brio mountains of that country to explore
alleged new fields. In Bahia Brazil some
900 people gather small diamonds but the
enterprise is not one to tempt the fortune
seeker. Diamonds have long been known
TO exist In southwestern Borneo The
great Borneo diamond of NATHAN said to
weigh 361 carats, is believed to have come
from this region. But it is a peculiar be-
nei OF the natives of the territory that the
gold and diamonds in the earth are sort
or reserve lent by Providence to be drawn
upon only when they are in dire poverty.
Last winter a syndicate was formed in
Bremen to search for diamonds in German
southwest Africa. Small though brilliant
and remarkably hard diamonds have re-
Gently been reported from New South
Wales; others from Queensland, Australia.
Machinery is being introduced into British
Guiana, where $4,000 diamonds were found
last year; but these averaged only one-fif-
teenth carat in size.
Diamonds have been found in Virginia,
North Carolina. Georgia, Wisconsin, Idaho,
California and Indiana. But the entire dia-
nond product of the United States since
time began could be held in the palm of
your hand. An interesting find made in
this country last year was a diamond
weighing 81 carats, picked up near Mar
tinsville, Ind
If the De Beers mines play out the pros
pect, therefore, seems to be that we will
have to wait for the savants now expert
menung with the artificial production of
diamonds to perfect their work. McroScop-
IL uldHhonuS are now manufactured from
carbon dissolved in melted iron at enormous
temperatures and under tremendous pres
sure. These experiments are being made in
Austria and Germany.
Until recent months it has been the sus-
p1cion of the diamond trade that the De
Beers company has been long holding sew
eral years supply of diamonds in reserve
But the fact that the rough diamond stock
of the world has been seriously reduced in
the past twelve months-the demand hay
ing vastly exceeded the supply-has ex-
ploded that theory. 1t is now suspected
that the big company exhausted its reserve
during the Boer war.
JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS, JR