world,—men
who can treat the diamond as it should be treated in order to develop
its greatest beauty. The fact that so many fine stones have been recut
here led to a great improvement abroad in cutting, especially in the
French Jura and in Switzerland, where both sexes are now employed at
that trade ; and, as a result, diamonds sold to-day are better than
those of twenty years ago. Mr. Morse, above all others, has shown that
diamond-cutting is an art, and not an industry.
There
are at present about twelve diamond-cutting establishments in this
country, employing from one to fifty men each, in all about a hundred,
at salaries ranging from $20 to $50 a week. Most of the cutting done is
of a high class, some shops being almost entirely employed in recutting
stones previously cut abroad. Ten years ago nearly all the diamonds
used in the United States were purchased through brokers or importers :
now, owing to the marvelous growth of the diamond business here, and
the facilities for transatlantic travel, some of the large retail
houses buy their diamonds direct in the European markets, and in more
than one instance have established branches or agencies abroad.
Agate Cutting.—In
cutting large surfaces of hard materials, such as agate, jasper, and
quartz, no better work has been done than that of the Drake Company of
Sioux Falls, South Dak. Agate-cutting, as already stated, has been
carried on for over three hundred years in the Oberstein district in
Germany. But little attention, however, has been paid to the cutting of
large masses, because no agates are found over a foot in diameter, and
the banding is not such as to offer any inducement for polishing.
Perfected methods for sawing and polishing such material have resulted
from experiments recently conducted1 by the Drake Company.
They have undertaken the preparation of agatized wood for the market,
and have succeeded in producing a large number of columns from 8 to 12
inches wide, and 2 to 3 feet high, cut transversely across the tree, so
that the heart is visible on two sides, with radiations in all
directions; they also cut sections measuring respectively 13, 17, 24,
and 25 inches in diameter, and so highly polished that when turned with
the back
1 Eng. and Min. Jour., Vol. 45, p. 214, March 24, 1888.
