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Ch. 12: Winning the Diamonds

Ch. 12: Winning the Diamonds Page of 396 Ch. 12: Winning the Diamonds Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
20 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
the minerals associated with it, so that its separation would seem a simple matter, it was found in practice to be impossible owing to the slippery nature of the diamond. The heavy concentrates carried diamonds, and diamonds flowed away from the percus­sion table with the tailings. When it seemed that every resource to do away with hand sorting had been exhausted, Kirsten asked to be allowed to try to catch the diamonds by placing a coat of thick grease on the surface of the percussion table with which the
other experiments had been made. Kirsten had noticed that oily substances, such as axle grease and white or red lead, adhered to diamonds when they chanced to come into contact, and he argued to himself, if these substances adhered to diamonds and not to the other minerals in the concentrates, why should not diamonds adhere to grease on the table and the other minerals flow away ? In this way the remarkable discovery was made that diamonds alone of all minerals contained in the blue ground will adhere to grease, and that all others will flow away as tailings over the end of the percussion table with the water. After this was determined by
Ch. 12: Winning the Diamonds Page of 396 Ch. 12: Winning the Diamonds
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