White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-11-26

of blue ground will produce only
about 1917 pounds Of diamonds
a ratio Of 100000 to 1.
We might address the cleanser
who broad blade in hand, now and
then scrapes off the diamondiferous
petroleum and throws it into a vat of
boiling water.
"scraping off millions Of dollars
worth of diamonds in this way, isn't
it rather exciting"
"Why, no." he will probably an
swer Observation-Disclosures everyone
knows what familiarity breeds-"it's
about like handling mortar with a
trowel."
Inside the sorting room, to which
visitors are admitted after an eye has
scrutinized them from behind slid
back panel, men were poking dia-
monds through graduated holes in
small screens to ascertain the stones
diameters. On one table alone lay 49,
500 carats-weight Of gems, worth ap-
proximately million dollars. Feel
ing as dizzy as Ali Bahia in the treas
ure cave, one asks TREMENDOUSLY of
sorter:
Putting millions of dollars worth
of diamonds through screen holes,
isn't it bit thrilling?"
ooh, no." he answers, suppressing
a yawn-again that familiarity COM
plex-as he popped one-inch dia-
mond through the screen, its about
like Smelling peas"
Kimberley town itself is as simple
and homelike place as you'd find in
the suburban area Of some American
city. 1t has produced nearly $780,
! 100000 worth Of diamonds in half a
century. It's difficult to see how the
city could adequately have expressed
it's wealth production save by paw
| ing it's main street with gems; but
! in truth it has been it's fate to have
| created fortunes that too often fit
ted from South Africa to the attrac-
| tons in London and Paris.
Yet there was an exception. At
least one Kimberley digger, Cecil
Rhodes, could amass a fortune, yet
scorn to use it in the common way
| Great wealth constitutes a trust, to
be administered in the wider interests
of humanty-such was his view And
that he did, according to his lights,
within South Africa and for the Brit
ish empire.
You may strike his trail along the
twisting street-it follows the route
of bygone diggers' footpaths from
claim to claim-that leads you to the
long abandoned New Rush" mine.
Here is the vast, extinct crater, al
most mile around and quarter of
a mile deep, that once spewed dia-
monds into Europe's capitals; and
here, too, if you've eyes to see them,
swarm old-time miners ghosts, with
avid eyes and avaricious hands, sift-
ing the earth and clawing at fortune
Tomorrow, for them, the fleshpots of
Paris and London!
Many Used in Industry.
Not all diamonds are destined to
shine forth from jeWelry that adorns
men and women. More than half the
worlds production of the stones in
quantity, is used in industry. Some
form bearings for Watches chrome
meters, electric meters, and other ac-
curate instruments and laboratory ap-
paratus. Some, in which tapered holes
are drilled, are used for drawing fine
wire Of platinum, silver, gold, and
rare metals.
Other industrial uses for diamonds
are as drills for glass, porcelain, and
similar hard substances; turning.
tools for lathe work; engraving
points; and as cutting edges for rock
drilling and saving. For industrial
purposes only the less nearly perfect
and less valuable stones are used
The United States is the worlds
greatest diamond consuming country
Normally it absorbs nearly the equiv.
alent of the entire South African out
put. If all the diamonds produced in
the world in 1929 could have beer
combined into single cube 1t would
have been five and half feet across
each face-a crystal block as tall as
the average man and weighing more
than ton and a half. If the rough
stones have been brought together anG
dumped into bushel baskets they
would have filled two dozens Of them
heaped up.
In recent years a wealth of the
gems has been literally scooped UP
from the earth in the regions Of al
luvial diamond deposits. Until this
change in mining methods came about
the greater part Of the diamonds haG
been mined for decades by laborious
digging to great depths in the pipes
of extinct volcanoes Then came the
slow work of separating the stones
l nj