Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-01
MINING OF DIAMONDS
How the Costly Stones Are De-
tected and Sorted.
Mr.. G. F. WILLIAMS TALKS
General for the De Beers Company
Twenty Years.
NOW RESIDENT OF THIS CITY
Digging and Disintegration of the
Blue Notwithstanding and
Selling the Jewels.
BY WILLIAM f. CURTIS.

Mr.. Gardner F. Williams has become 6
permanent citizen of Washington, after hav
ing served nearly twenty years in Soutf
Africa as general manager of the DE-
Beers diamond mines undoubtedly the
most profitable business enterprise in the
world, as well as one of the most inter.
esting. While he was in charge, from
March, 1889, until July, 1906 they produced
$2ss. 651 ESQ worth of diamonds. and paid In
dividends the enormous sum of SILT, S12, 915
The Calumet and Hecla copper mines OF
Michigan. which are generally supposed tc
be the most valuable mineral property In
the world. paid SS7, $50, 900 In dividends up to
the same date. The De Beers and Kinber-
ley mines produced diamonds to the value
Of sag, ,9S5 under Mr.. Williams manage
ment, and Of the other properties of the
company the Wesselton produced s23 oo3,-
$50, the Bultfontein $1,72355 and the
Jagersfontein ST., COS $50
Mr.. Williams has retired from h,lsiness
has bought lot at the corner of r and pod
streets and Is going to build himself a home
there. having selected Washington as the
most attractive and satisfactory place to
i've or all the cities he has seen. He went
from California to South Africa in 1884 to
De superintendent of the De Beers mines.
ana IN 1887 became general manager Since
tnen ne has had all OF the South A frica n
pIoperty or that great company under his
charge until 1905. when his son Aluheus r
Williams, succeeded him The latter wa 6
educated at the University of California
went TO south Africa in 1898 to become an
assistant to his father. and during the last
year has been in entire control.
Theories Regarding Diamonds.
When l asked Mr.. Williams What ia a
diamond and where did it come from p,
ne modestly admitted that he did not
know. He said that he had handled hum
dreds of millions Of dollars worth of them.
but' after seventeen years of thoughtful
study, coupled with practical research T
nho II easier to drive a coach and four
through the theories which have heen nro
pounded than to find evidence to sns+a In
them. All that can be said Is that in some
unknown manner carbon, which existed
down deep in the internal regions of the
earth, was mysteriously changed bv some
process of nature from It's black and un-
inviting appearance to the most beautiful
gem that every saw the light of day
Inc chemical composition of diamonds
mas peen long determined, at least approx
mately. Sir Isaac Newton conjectured 1t to
be of vegetable origin and combustible. but
1t was not until 1854 that Newton's assump-
ton of It's combustiblity was actually
proved; and finally the experiments of Sir
humphrey Davy in 1916 showed that 1t is
almost entirely pure carbon. But the pro-
cess ofFthe formation or capitalization of
the diamond carbon is still uncertain The
proofs are most conclusive that the dia-
monds In the South African mines were
not formed in stu, but have been driven
up from below by volcanic action. have
been of the opinion that diamonds were
crystallized In very much the same way
as quartz or other minerals, but under
peculiar circumstances, possibly OF pressure
and heat, that gave them their remarkable
individuality and beauty.
There are, as l have said, no end of
theories to explain how they were made
and how they happened to be buried in old
volcanic craters. Sir William Crookes con-
cluded that the diamonds found In the
South African mines are a specialization
of pure carbon In molten masses of iron.
which form a part of the internal regions of
the earth Another great chemist believes
that a diamond is the Capitalization of car
bonic acid gas reduced to liquid state
by enormous pressure In subaqueous
volcano, while we have another fantastic
chemist, that the diamond deposits came
with the fall of meteors a direct gift from
heaven. Sir William Crookes does not
consider this theory so fantastic as you
would suppose. He declares that L am
bound to say that there are many circum-
stances which show that the notion of the
heavens raining diamonds is not impossi-
BILE The Ava meteorite, which fell In
Hungary in 1886 contained graphite in
cubic crystalline form. which chemists have
thought was produced by the transforma-
ton of diamonds, and diamonds have ac-
tually been found In meteorites in Austria
liza, Russia and in Canyon Diablo. Arizona.
However" said Mr.. Williams. Africa is
a fairy-iand with caverns filled with buried
treasures, gold, diamonds, garnets. rubies,
sapphires, agates and other gems buried
thousand feet In the dark recesses OF ex-
tinct volcanoes.
Mining the Diamonds.
How do you get the diamonds out?"
asked.
IN the first place, we dig out what is
called blue ground, the principal filling of
the volcanic pipes or caters and carry 1t
away in trucks by endless wire ropes driven
by steam to great smooth. earthen floors,
which have been leveled and hardened with
heavy rollers. These are called receiving
grounds, and are laid out separately for
eaN of the four mines of our company
They cover several thousand acres. They
begin about mile from the mines and ex
tend about three miles. Each OF them will
hold about 10000 truckioads Of earth.
when this blue ground is dumped from
ths-trucks it Is spread out about one foot
In thickness, and we have to wait patiently
until the sun and the rain cause IL to dis
integrate The effect of the exposure to
heat and moisture is remarkable. The large
pieces OF blue begin to crumble Immediately,
and the diamonds lying buried in them are
thus released. But they are invisible. Dur
ing all the time I was in charge of the
on the drying floors. To hasten disintegra-
ton the blue ground is stirred up daily
by harrows just as farmer prepares the
soil of his field for seed Formerly the
harrows were drawn by mules, but now
we use traction engines. The length OF
time required for the blue ground to pull
verize depends upon the season OF the year
and the amount of rainfall-sometimes six
months, sometimes year.
After It has reached a certain condition
the large pieces which have not disin-
tegrated are removed from the floors and
crushed In breakers. The wen-disinte-
grated blue ground is carted In auto
matte trucks to washing machines. where 1t
is reduced to the consistency of thin mud
and passed through a series of screens In
order to catch the large pieces of rock. The
magnitude of these operations may be APP
preeiated when tell you that nearly 5,000.-
Geo truekloads. or 100000 tons of blue