The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-11-08
WHERE DIAMONDS ARE
FLOWED UP BY HARROWS
Crop From the Kimberley Field Last Year Was
Worth ThitS-Two Million DoIars---Riches
at Seventy Dollars Minute.

| which handle the earth, after its melt
ing. Over every car track is steel
moved by the steam engines of the five
central plants.
I saw the process of washing out
diamonds at the De Beers mine The
rock was carried there a distance of
eight miles by the cable. In reducing
it, ii was divided into two classes, one
soft and one hard. The hard rock was
that which had not been affected by
the weather, and it had to be crushed
to powder before the diamonds could
be taken out. This was done in mighty
steel crushers which are so made that
they will grind up the rock, and at the
same time not injure the still harder
diamonds within. After crushing, the
coarser pieces are crushed again, and
at the end it is all reduced to about
the consistency of soft ground, made
so by the weather.
Both the soft and the crushed ground
are then washed to get rid of the waste,
and, as a result, out of every 100 loads
of the mixture comes one load of gravel,
containing the diamonds.
Diamonds Saved by Grease.
1t used to be that all the gravel OBJ
tanned in this way was sorted over by
men. Both natives and whites were
employed, but the chances for stealing
were great and it was found that many
small stones were lost. Indeed some of
the gravel which was sorted over in
that way years ago is now being sorted
again and at great profit.
Today the diamonds are saved by
tables covered with a grease just like
axle grease. The gravel is run~through
what is known as pulsator, consisting
of series of iron tables corrugated
like a washboard. These tables lie at
a slight angle, and the machinery
shakes them, so that they are always
moving as the gravel goes over them.
They are covered with this grease, and
by the shaking almost every stone at
one time or another comes in contact
with the grease.
Now, it is a curious thing that dia-
monds viii stick in this grease, and
that all the other stones will flow off
without catching. Every few hours the
tables are stopped and the grease is
scraped off. 1t is found to contain all
the diamonds, and also small bits of
iron pyrites, garnets and pieces of
metal from the miners boots and the |
copper fuses used in the blasting. 1t is
now put in a steel bucket which is per-
forated with holes, and this is sunk |
into boiling water. As the water touches
the grease it melts and goes to the top |
and may be poured off, leaving only |
the scraps of metal and the diamonds. |
The diamonds are picked out and clean
ed and sorted, after which they are
ready TO be valued for the market.
Sorting Diamonds.
I spent some time watching the dia-
mond sorters pick out the precious
stones after the grease was poured Off
Each man had on a table before him
a handful of diamonds of all shapes and
sizes, and he was picking them up, one
by one, with a pair of tweezers, and
dropping them into a tin cup, which
cost, I venture, less than FIVE cents. AS
watched one of these men, he lifted
up a little white stone, saying, "'This
IS worth $780," and then showed me
another, not much larger, worth double
hat sum. The manager afterward pour
ed out pint of diamonds on the table,
showing me some that were worth $50
/ carat and others much cheaper. He
.ook up little scoop shovel, and with
t threw the diamonds back into the
up, handling them as though they were
peas.
Later on visited the eompany's Of
ices in Kimberley itself, and was shows
quarts of diamonds from the various
mines. The sorters can tell by its shape
md color from just which pipe each dia-
nond comes, and L was shown speci-
mems from every mine 1 had in my
and a little bundle which contained .
bout a pint of small stones, the value
f which Appropriated half a million
dollars. and l was shown other bundles
obtaining brilliants as big as the end
f my finger. Some of these rough
tones had smooth edges and they were
lmost pebbles in shape. Others ap-
cared ready for setting, and some were
roken and Clipped from other stones.
Ianv of the diamonds contained flaws,
ut there were many which were alb
olutely perfect. The diamonds were '
f different colors. Some were as vel /.
DIV as topazes, Others a light blue tint :
nd Others pure white. I
All the diamonds of the De Beers '
ompanv now 90 to the diamond syndi- [