Diamonds and Cutlery

1895

Uncut diamonds are comparatively cheap when purchased in London, the great precious stone market of the world, but by the time the American duty has been paid on them and they have been cut to brilliants by three or four days of work — and it never takes less — on the part of the lapidary they have more than doubled in value. Occasionally rough diamonds are split in the wrong direction in cleaving, and valuable stones are thus entirely lost. It is a measure of skill on the part of the lapidary to be able to tell by a close inspection of the rough stone just how it will cleave. Pieces of diamonds which are broken off are ground into a powder with a hammer, and the dust is poured into an iron receptacle partially filled with oil.

An expert diamond cutter receives from $20 to $25 a week, but his work is so confining and he is required to bend his body so much that he is usually carried off at a comparatively early age with consumption. — Chicago Record.


Don't Hinder Others

Next in practical importance to the being possessed by a purpose of doing something in the world is the being possessed by the purpose of not hindering others in their doing whatever they have to do in the world. — Faith and Works.

Gem From Mouth of A Corpse

1916

Dentist Removes $100 Diamond From Dead Man's Tooth.

ALTOONA, Pennsylvania. — Just before the funeral of Caramel Bave, a jewelry salesman, his $100 diamond which he had set between his two upper front teeth some years ago was removed by a dentist. His family had not thought of disturbing the gem in his mouth until it was suggested that grave robbers might attempt to recover it.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 4.

The Funny Side of Life

1902

Point of View

When a fellow has spent
His last red cent,
The world looks blue — you bet!
But — give him a dollar
And you'll hear him holler:
"There's life in the old land yet!"

— Atlanta Constitution.


Precious

Mrs. Knicker — "Mrs. Smith seems very proud of her diamonds."
Mrs. Bockor — "Yes, she refers to them as her white coals." — New York Sun.


Worth While

She — "I should like to know what good your college education did you?"
He — "Well, it taught, me to owe a lot of money without being annoyed by it." — Life.


The Influence

Jerry — "How do good clothes make a man a gentleman?"
Joe — "They make him feel as if he was expected to act like one." — Detroit Free Press.

May Yet Make Diamonds

1905

Inventors Hope to Eliminate Silicon from New Carbon Compound

Utilization of waste products has taken a long step forward, according to the inventors of a new furnace, as by their method of combustion the well-known abrasive, in its present chemical combination of silicon and carbon, is simply a byproduct and until its identity with the commercial product was established was given away for ornaments, valued because of their attractive crystalline formation and peculiar coloring.

Since its value was indicated the waste has been subjected to all sorts of tests and in some instances has shown a slightly greater degree of hardness than the carborundum produced by means of the electric current applied at enormous voltage for a number of hours, which is slightly less than that of the diamond.

This fact has started investigations which lead to the hope, based, it is said, on good foundation, that the silicon may be entirely eliminated from the product, leaving it pure carbon, chemically the counterpart of the diamond. It is asserted that with a proper selection of materials for combustion in the furnace this result can be obtained, and while the carborundum at present produced has a high commercial value the investors are not inclined to rest content with that if anything more valuable is in sight.

A Recipe for Diamonds

1906

If Anyone Wants to Make a Few, Here Is the Way to Go About It

Would you like to know how to manufacture diamonds — real diamonds? The process is somewhat difficult, requiring time, patience and some outlay of money, but then consider the possible results! The diamond, we know, says the New York Herald, is simply carbon in a transparent crystalline form. It comes of humble parentage and is brother to the lump of coal.

Unlike easily crystallizable bodies, carbon is insoluble in all ordinary solvents, but molten metals will combine with it. Let the diamond maker choose iron for a solvent for charcoal, melting it in an electric furnace, allowing it to take up as much carbon as it can — in other words, saturate itself with carbon. The crucible containing the white hot metal should then be plunged into a bath of molten lead. The result will be that globules of iron will rise to the surface of the lead and are quickly cooled on the outer surface. Inside the hard crust the iron remains for some time in a molten condition, and, as iron expands in solidifying, the contents of these little globules receive a pressure unattainable by any other means. When the lead becomes solidified some bullets of iron will be found bound up in the mass. Dissolve with some powerful acid first the lead and then the iron, and a residue of carbonaceous matter will be found to contain tiny crystals — real diamonds. Any chemist with a well equipped laboratory can make diamonds in this way, but the largest of them will not be more than a fiftieth an inch in diameter.

The Cameo

1907

Gets Its Name From the Cutting, Not From the Stone

The true nature of a cameo is very much misunderstood by the public generally. Most people think it is the stone itself, when in reality the method of cutting is what produces the cameo. The real meaning of the word is unknown, Its derivation having never been discovered; but, correctly speaking, cameos are small sculptures executed in low relief on some substance precious either for its beauty, rarity or hardness.

There are emerald cameos, turquoise cameos, shell cameos, coral cameos. Indeed, any substance that lends itself to carving in such minute detail can be used for cameo cutting, and nearly all precious stones, except diamonds, have been so used for intaglios, but never for cameos. Emerald is the most common precious stone from which cameos have been made, and there are some very fine emerald portrait cameos in existence, notably those of Queen Elizabeth in the British museum. Shell cameos were first made in the fifteenth century.

Banded onyx is generally used for cameo work because of its hardness and coloring, and it is this fact that has caused the misapprehension, the stone being used so much in making cameos that it has now become better known as "cameo" than by its right name. — St. Louis Globe-Democrat.