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THE BOOK OF DIAMONDS
one-third per cent during the beginning of depression, and today they have regained all but ten per cent of their high prices.
A
London diamond syndicate controls the price and marketing of diamonds.
Having reached London from South Africa in the rough, our diamonds are
only half way through their journey to a glass case in some American
jewelry shop.
Probably
the first objects chosen for personal adornment were those most easily
strung together, for example certain shells and brilliant seeds. The
harder gems were hoarded as pretty toys long before they could be
adjusted for use as ornaments.
Fifty
per cent of all diamonds are used industrially, and two-fifths of these
are all applied to the grinding wheels. To shape the hard surface of
emery, of carborundum, and of tungsten carbide, only the diamond can be
economically used.
One
of the principal uses of diamonds is in the manufacture of jewelry.
Today a woman reaches the peak of happiness when her lover places a
beautifully-cut diamond set in a gold ring upon the third finger of her
left hand. Her beloved uses the diamond as a token of his love and it
becomes a covenant between them that they belong to each other. It has
been said, "The diamond is to the pearl as the sun is to the moon".
The use of the diamond for other purposes than jewelry depends upon its extreme hardness. It has always been
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