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Adamas, Diamond

Adamas, Diamond Page of 453 Adamas, Diamond Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
DIAMOND-CUTTING.
43
the lustre of the Diamond : his object was to display his victory over the invincible material.3
Barbot (Taille du Diamant) considers it an absurdity to sup­pose that the action of one Diamond upon another could have been discovered by accident, so much force being actually re­quired to make one bite on the other. This is true for the effective operation, but the idea of their possessing such power may very possibly have been suggested by observing the effect of slight and casual friction. Like a true Gaul, Barbot solves the difficulty by making Berquem go to Paris to study the art under Herman.
Laborde, to prove the antiquity of the art of diamond-cutting, adduces the use of the diamond-point by the ancients for en­graving gems.4 This is totally foreign to the purpose : nothing could have been done in the way of reducing the Diamond to any given shape until the secret was discovered how to get the diamond-dust to replace the emery, that agent only effectual for the softer gems; and this diamond-dust could only then be ob­tained by rubbing one stone against the other; there was as yet no supply of small Diamonds only useful for pulverisation. This then was the grand discovery of L. de Berquem; and until a genuine piece of mediaeval jewelry be produced, containing a Diamond actually cut to a definite pattern, there is no reason why he should be robbed of the honour he has so long enjoyed.
In the modern art the first principles are the same. The stone, if of a very irregular formation, is brought towards its required shape by cleavage. A nick being scratched with a diamond-point along the direction of its laminae, a smart blow with the knife severs the projection, which can subsequently be itself cut into a shapely stone of appreciable dimensions and value.5 The
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