Evening star., 1935-03-24
BY Gene Harry Day.

pnOne pOok until your eyes are
- red and bleary, yet you will
discover nary professional
lapidary or lapidist listed as resident
and active In business in the Dis
trict or nearby Maryland and Virginia.
Not a single gem-cutter in Washing
ton with her half-million population
and the richest holdings Of privately
owned diamonds, rubieS, sapphires and
emeraldS Of any municipality OF COM
parable size in the world.
A lapidary is gem-cutter who by
the skill of his trade-it has been
secret art handed down like valuable
legacy from father to son-transforms
crude and sometimes ugly stones into
scintilating, irridiscent sources of ap-
parently radiant brilliancy Of such
beauty that it beggars both pen and
typewriting vocabularies to even at
tempt to describe them. Washing
tonians' precious gems when and If
they need recutting, are sent either to
Philadelphia or New York City, where
expert lapidists re-angle their facets
and polish them to new and perhaps
different zeniths of brilliancy.
True to tell, there is no professional
lapidist in the District, but there is
at least one man who is capacitated to
facet and polish precious stones, al
though his experience to date has
been confined to the cabochon and
facet cutting of semi-preciouS stones.
This man is practically lf-trained in
his intriguing hobby, yet curious to
ell, he has perfected and applied tech
nical inventions to the fascinating art
which merit reproduction and util-
ization in the workshops of the pro-
fesSional lapidists. The Washingtonian
who has dabbled successfully in that
long secret wonderwork of cutting dia-
monds and other gems is Albert H.
Bumstead, chief photographer, or map
maker of the National Geographic
Society. He is a master at finding new
technical riddles to Solve-and then
solving the selfsame to the queens
taste. His particular delight in fact.
consists in developing new methods as
well as technical shortcuts" for the
accomplishment of precise, mechanical
work which involves seasoned skill
and particular patience.
JUST for the sake of variation, let's
scramble and customary formula
for the once and pause to discuss the
diamonds. or finished products before
we describe in detail how Mr.. Bum
stead prepares his semi-precious stones
for exhibition. even as diamonds are
prepared for commercialization.
Thoughts of diamonds have streamed
through peoples minds since those
gems were first made available for
ownership and display. Diamonds
from then until now have been peren-
nial puZzles-real riddles of creation
A philosopher named Steffans once
said: Diamond is quartz which has
arrived at self-consciousness." Subse-
quently, an internationally known
geologist parodied Steffan's statement
by remarking that Quartz is diamond
which has become insane"
Albeit, the exact formation of the
diamond even today is an unsolved
problem, despite that science is now
able to manufacture synthetic dia-
monds in extremely minute quantities.
The diamond is the hardest known
Ill IldLuI6. 1JS
power and refractive energy exceed
those of all other colorless bodies,
while in the perfection of its pellu-
cidity, the diamond is without rival.
Strange to say. some diamonds are
so hard that it is impossible to cut
and polish them into valuable gems.
But those harder -than-hard dia-
monds Notwithstanding, are ulti-
mately harnessed for utilitarian serv-
ice, being used for rock-boring pur-
poses.
Here actually is news for the record
book. Diamonds which are stolen
and their whereabouts practically
known to the police are termed hot"
gems in the vernacular of the under
world. They are usually so hot"
that fences and traders who handle
stolen goods are afraid to offer them
for sale. They may be hot" but
their temperatures never attain points
where the gems explode with a big
bang and destructive blow-up as do
other gems of that family, tribe, spe-
cies or whatever you want to call
the organization to which the precious
stones belong. Experts tell me that
it is not uncommon for a diamond
to explode soon after it reaches the
surface. Certain gems have even
burst in the pockets of miners, or
have disintegrated when held in the
warm hand. The large crystals are
more liable to burst than the smaller
pieces. Incredibly valuable gems
have been destroyed in this manner.
Time was. so the story goes. when
cunning dealers we're not averse to
permitting responsible clients to
handle or carry in their warm pockets
large crystals of diamonds in the
rough which had been freshly mined.
If the diamonds blew up and we're
damaged irreparably, the dealers held
those persons in whose possession the
diamonds then were responsible for
such losses British, German and
French diamond traders, who for
merly travelled once, twice or thrice
annually to South Africa after dia-
monds, commonly carried raw pota-
toes in which they embedded the
fresh diamonds that they bought from
miners and natives in order to insure
safe transit to Europe for the costly
but raw" gems.
You can pretty we'll appreciate that
the best steel is relatively soft when
measured by the average hardness of
diamonds when you familiarize your
self with the following test. Expert
mentors. time and again, have placed
diamonds on the flattened apexs of
conical blocks of steel. When hy-
draulic pressure is applied In effort
to crush the gems against the steel
surface. something entirely different
from what you might. expect occurs.
If the diamonds are f1awless they
actually are squeezed and pressed by
the hydraulic force right into the
blocks Of steel without injuring the
gems a single iota.
CAN you imagine any experience
more rare and epochal than to
be able to read by the light of dia-
mond which you might own, if you