Diamonds Play An Irreplaceable Part In War Production

Taranaki Daily News, 27 August 1942, Page 2

Diamonds Play An Irreplaceable Part In War Production

rnHE word "diamond" is derived from adamas, which means unconquerably hard. It is this quality which makes diamonds invaluable in an increasing number of industries. Diamonds are portable wealth that carry their value in their face. You can always realise on them anywhere, and much more readily and with a smaller sacrifice on original outlay than on any other commodity, writes Louis Kornitzer in the Strand Magazine. The present increase in diamond prices is not only due to the demands of potential refugees or to those who remember what happened to currencies after the last war. The Board of Trade, as part of the Government's control measures to prevent the country from bleeding itself to death financially, has issued an order that of merchants' stocks of diamonds 75 per cent. must be exported to provide foreign currency with which to meet our obligations abroad. Black Market. Where there is control there automatically looms up a black market, and the diamond trade is no exception. How can it be, when a rich investor may be prepared to pay £1000 per ca'rat for a rare blue-white gem of, say, from 15 to 20 carats? In pre-war days, such a 6tone would not have brought more than £250 per carat, and single-carat stones of similar quality £35 to £40. whereas to-day dealers would pay willingly up to £160 for them. But the greatest scarcity has made itself felt in the small sizes called melee. These run from six stones to over 200 to the carat, and it must be remembered that a carat is only the 5000th part of a kilogramme. The reason for this scarcity lies in the fact that in Belgium, Holland and Germany most of the diamond cutters have been rudely torn from their skiHed work, and the few who have been left to carry on cannot get the "rough" diamonds, because the mines are almost entirely under British control. But even in peace-time these splendid tokens of wealth have more important uses than to be displayed in jewellery. Collectors collect them; Governments and great syndicates use them as security in big financial undertakings. "Crowned heads" wear replicas of them while the real thing lies deep in vaults, safe from thieves. Proletarian Diamonds. At least three-fourths by weight of all the diamonds in the world are quite unsuitable for use as jewels, even by the least exacting. These stones. opaque and of colours ranging from white to jet-black, chipped. cracked or otherwise maimed, are not worth the trouble of faceting and polishing. Yet these proletarian three-fourths are the world's worker-diamonds. By virtue of their great hardness, which is greatef than anything else in the world, they are invaluable to an increasing number of industries. There can scarcely be a wellequipped machine shop anywhere that has not one or more tools set with a diamond. It ought to be a source of satisfac'don to us that most of the known diamond-producing areas of the world are controlled by the British Empire and British capital. Diamonds play, in-

deed, an irreplaceable part in armaments production. The layman may' well wonder what particular uses are made of diamond tools. Briefly, and without entering into technicalities, some stones because they are pointed are best suited for piercing and drilling, others because of their keen cutting edge are adapted for cutting through the hardest metal alloys. Yet others. because of their natural formalion, or of the s.iape given them by the lapidary, are indispensable for smoothing bores or in the trueing of wheels. Gems of Antiquity. We must take some of the great diamonds of antiquity with a grain of salt. remembering the ignorance of the ancients. There is, for instance, the great "Braganza," the size of a gooseegg„ whose weight in the -rough was given as 1680 carats (10 1-4 ounces). This giant was found in the Brazilian interior by three escaped criminals and, after certain adventures, was shipped to LisSon. Don Juan VI of Portugal had a hole drilled through it and wore it on a chain round his neck for State occasions. It is supposed to be still in existence in the Portuguese_ Treasury, but the authorities of that country are not communicative on the subject. One gem expert. who claimed to have seen it. described the "Braganza" as a yellow stone, and it may well be a precious topaz, not to be cohfused with the much less valuable oriental topaz, which is yellow corundum, or with the smoky quartz sq

frequently called topaz. Whatever it is, the value of thfe Portuguese stone has been estimated to be as high as 3,000,000 sterling. It is customary when writing about diamonds to mention the great historical gems like the Great Mogul, the Koh-i-noor, the Orloff, the Cullinan, and so on. I will tell you of one less well known, Ihe . Matau. It is a Borneo diamond weighing 367 carats (not much less than 2J ounces). It came, of course, into the hands of the ruling Sultan. The Dutch Government subsequently offered for it the equivalent of £20,000 in cash, plus two war brigs with full complement of guns and other war material, but the Sultan refused. Miraculous Stone. Many years ago a value of £350,000 was set on the Matau. To-day it might he worth two or three millions sterling! But who could afford to buy it, to wear it, or to protect or indemnify the wearer against loss? This gem is credited with miraculous powers of healing. Even the water in which it is dipped is 6upposed to be good medicine agiinst every ill. It is the only great diamond I have heard to possess great beneficent powers. In a sense the diamond is virtually jmmortal, truly "adamas" the unconquerable! And yet sometimes it happens that in the simple act of dropping it into the scales from the height, say, of only an inch, a diamond may break in two. I have seen this happen. The explanation is not that the diamond was in some way flawed. It was perfectly sound in every respect, but in falling it had just happened that the cleavage line of the stone had struck the edge of the scale.