THE SHADE OF J. BALLANTINE HANNAY 231
ters,
and twist drills, lathe tools, hones, engraving pencils, grinding-wheel
dressing tools, drill crowns, and the wheels themselves that are used
in preparing diamonds of all sorts. For hundreds of years, ever since
diamonds were first ground into facets, some version of grinding wheel
has been employed in this work. In the midst of these exotic if
fascinating implements it was a small shock to recognize homely,
familiar things under glass, such as diamond phonograph needles and
vulcanite pipestems. These last are cut and shaped with diamond tools
because diamond, unlike steel, is impervious to the sulphur in
vulcanite and so doesn't get spoiled in the works. It was less pleasant
to spot dentist's drills, but the horrid little objects reminded me of
something my dentist had said just before I left London:
"You
know if the diamond traders would only release all available supplies
of industrial diamonds and put them on the market where they belong,
your dentistry bills would be much lower. Blame those fellows in De
Beers for the high cost of good teeth. It's not only the drills; a lot
of the tools our mechanics use depend on diamonds."
Now,
in the Research Laboratory, I thought it a good time to bring up this
matter, but my guide didn't agree at all. "He's wrong," he said flatly,
"quite wrong. But it's no use saying so. We say it until we're blue in
the face, but the public won't believe us. We do not hold back our
industrials; it's only that the supply isn't equal to the demand."
I said, "But surely now, with the General Electric diamond . . ."
"Ah, that," he said. "Well, it's an interesting question, all right. Impossible to say as yet what effect it's going to have.
