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THE AUSTRIAN YELLOW.
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mixed
with olive oil, and made to revolve very rapidly in a horizontal
position. The portion of the diamond to be polished is then pressed
against the revolving wheel and a high state of polish is thus
attained. The grinding of the facets is entirely governed by eye, and
such is the dexterity and accuracy attained by good manipulators that
perfect roses are cut so small that fifteen hundred of them go to the
carat; and when we remember that one hundred and fifty carats go to an
ounce we shall have some faint idea of the minuteness of the work.*
In
Europe the brilliant is the usual form to give to the diamond, and the
one most admired. The invention of this particular method of cutting
is due to Vincenzo Peruzzi, a Venetian, who seems to have introduced
the fashion in the latter half of the eighteenth century. He
discovered that the utmost light and fire could be
*
The carat is the seed of a kind of vetch common in India, and is of
such uniform weight that it naturally suggested itself as a standard
measure, just as in our country the barley grain was taken as the unit.
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