had
as many as fifty. Then came the English round-cut brilliant, having a
triple row of star, main and corner facets between the table and the
girdle, and a double row of corner and main facets from the girdle to
the culet; thirty-two and the table above, and twenty-four and the
culet below the girdle, in all fifty-eight facets. This arrangement
remains in the perfect modern cut, for though further experiments have
been made, nothing more excellent has been devised.
During
all these years and stages of improvement, the cutter did not get
beyond the idea of surface brilliancy and size. Some even then thought
the small sacrifice of material necessary to obtain the facets, a
foolish fad. They deplored it as a tendency to sacrifice magnificence
to mere glitter. Yet the cut stones were thick and lumpy and good in
shape only when the crystals favored them. But as the " brilliant "
faceting prevailed, so also the round shape met with public approval,
and the old square-cut stones became things of the past.
The
cutting of the diamond had now reached a stage wherein full advantage
was taken, by the number and arrangement of the facets, of the surface
power of the stone to reflect and disperse the light rays falling upon
it, and incidentally, to return part of the light entering the stone,
to the eye, but the amount of the gem's internal brilliancy depended
largely upon the shape of the rough. Although the surface brilliancy of
a polished diamond is very great and beautiful, many of its dazzling
flashlights come from the interior. By taking advantage of the angle
of total reflection, light coming into the stone and striking the
interior back facets, cannot pass through, but is sent on at the angle
of incidence, and finally re-
