THE CHANGING PATTERN OF DIAMOND PRODUCTION
Before
1922, when the Weights and Measures Act (No. 32 of 1922) was passed,
the unit of weight employed in diamond mining and in diamond trading in
the Union was the carat of 205-304 milligrams.
The
Act cited above provided for the voluntary adoption of the
'international' or metric carat of 200 milligrams, or 3-08649 grains.
The metric carat is thus equal to -974165 of the 'old' carat. As from 1
July 1922, De Beers Consolidated Mines adopted the metric carat in its
statistical series; so also did the Union Government. Unless converted,
old statistical series are thus not strictly comparable with those
published since 1922. The following table is based on the metric carat
throughout. (See also Union Year Book, no. 6 (1923), p. 771, and, for
an historical survey of the different weights subsumed under the word
'carat', Bauer and Spencer, Precious Stones, etc. (1904), p. 103 et seq.)
