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PRECIOUS STONES. 691
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Shortly
after the great yields of the South African diamond fields began to
attract the attention of the trade in 1871, Mr. B. S. Pray, of Boston,
at that time engaged in the African diamond trade, brought to this
country a parcel of rough diamonds with the intention of seeing what
Mr. Morse could do in the way of cutting. The two men associated
themselves in business, and in a short time the industry of diamond
cutting was an established fact in this country. The Morse Diamond
Gutting Company was the style of the firm, and American dealers watched
the result of the undertaking with much interest. Dutch workmen were
employed at first, working under Mr. Morse's supervision. Conformably
with their long-established custom, the workers maintained secrecy with
respect to their art; but Mr. Morse, already familiar with the work,
took pains to acquaint himself with all details, which he communicated
to apprentices in a shop established in the suburbs Of Boston. When the
former finally struck, Mr. Morse was ready for them, and his American
hands, men and women, took the places of the Amsterdam cutters at once.
The
firm of Crosby, Morse & Foss, which succeeded the Morse Diamond
Cutting Company, was dissolved in 1875, Mr. Morse going into business
on his own account as a cutter and dealer in diamonds. In 18S7 he again
associated himself with one of his old partners, under the style of
Henry D. Morse & Charles D. Foss. Mr. Morse died on January 2,
1888, after having lived to see the art introduced by him extended to
about a dozen cuttiug shops in this country at the time of his death.
In
1870 Mr. Herrmann started the New York Diamond Cutting Company, in New
York city. In his attempt to establish this industry in the United
States he has sunk three fortunes, but he still has faith in this
ultimately becoming a diamond-cutting center.
Both
Mr. Morse and Mr. Herrmann taught the art of diamond cutting to girls,
which led to the taking up of this industry by women, not only on this
side of the Atlantic but to a large extent in France, Switzerland, and
other European countries. It was really these pioneer diamond cutters
that increased the taste and proficiency of the workers abroad; for
cutting diamonds as they did, with mathematical precision, they created
a demand for such work here, which the foreign cutters had to acquire
the skill to meet; and the result was a style of diamond cutting never
before equalled.
Changes in cutting machinery.—In
Mr. Morse's shop, in 1872, Mr. C. M. Field invented the first
diamond-cutting machine, which has made it possible to do the work
faster and with more precision than by the old hand process. It has
been adopted in some of the larger establishments in the United
States, although abroad its true value has not yet been fully
recognized.
Sir
Henry Bessemer has devised for the London cutters an endless rope that
furnishes the power ior as many as ten diamond mills at the
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