THE KOH-I-NUR. 109
was
excited by the process and many people of distinction visited the
workshop. One of these visitors asked Mr. Garrard what he would do,
supposing that the Koh-i-nur should fly to pieces during the cutting —
a contingency that some had feared likely. Mr. Garrard answered : " I
would take my name-plate off the door and bolt."
The
Prince Consort placed the diamond on the mill, and the Duke of
Wellington gave a turn to the wheel. Thus launched, the work went on
steadily, and at the end of thirty-eight days Mr. Woorsanger handed the
new brilliant to his superiors.
The
cutting of the Regent took two years by the old handmill process, and
it had no deep flaws to eradicate, as was the case with the Koh-i-nur.
To grind out these flaws the wheel made no less than three thousand
revolutions per minute.
The Koh-i-nur still retains its Oriental name, though it has so unfortunately been forced to
