Eg ¥ - The Jagersfontein Diamond in the Rough, Weighing 7 1-3 Ounces. By RENE BACHE EW YORK CITY might be called the metrop- N olizs of diamonds The United States Geological Sarvey says that half of all the di are owned in the United States, and three-fourths of these are in the jewel! boxes of the women of New York. The diamonds owned in this country (says tl same authority) are worth over a billion dollar And yet the demand has never been so great All the men who made fortpnes in "war babies' and through wag contraéts want to buy diamonds finding it 1onds in the wbr for their women to wear, and they are difficult to get them, even at enhanced prices There is a shortage of new diamonds, due to par tial suspension of mining #n South Africa during the great conflict Diamonds have never been so high in price as they are today; and they will go higher, because 95 per cent. of the total world's output hence: forward will be controlled by a single concern t'e De Beers Consolidated Company. The only very important diamond fields in the world are in South Africa. Hitherto the mines of German Southwest Africa have been in market rivalty with the British mines, but now that ter. ritory has been absorbed by the De Beers Con. . solidated, In Brazil and other parts of the world dia monde are washed from stream grav els, but South Africa they are found under altogether peculiar conditions, that is to say, "pipes." L Diamonds are always 'a volcanic product, be- fing carbon crystallized out of molten rock b enormous heat, but in South Africa found "in place' i. o., where they were originally formed. there in aston isting numbers, but occasionally greater than any gems of the kind known until rery recent years. ¢ Who, until' recently, would have thought in veleani " they are Not only do they oceur of a of size far Half of the Diamonds in the World Have Come, to America, and Three-Fourths of These i Are in the [Jewel Boxes ew York W omen. of | "King Edward's Diamond," 310 Carats, Cut from the Cullinan, ) the Largest Cut Diamond in the World. The "Jubilee Diamond." 239 Carats. | Victoria's accession to the the larger piece. "wr o Thus was obtained a peerless gem, surpass- ng any existing other not only in size but faultless perfection of color, lustre and "water.' In form it was se symmetrical that, when place on. the truncated apex of its basal pyramid, i tood perfectly balanced. The lesser fragment was split into 10 pieces, three largest vielding cot diamonds of ; and 139 carats "respectively (a "pear, drop," and a "marguise™), among the most beautiful ever seen. * Here, then, was inaugurated the practice, previously unheard of, of chopping up big dia nonds into smaller ones. But. if a crystal of this kind be beyond a certain size, it is hard to know that else to do with it--as illustrated in the ease of the "Cullinan," greatest of all diamonds. which will presently be discussed. 'The "Jubilee" was ippraised at $2,500,000, and' hopes were enter. tained thai some Oriental potentate or American multi-millionaive would buy it; but, if a pur- chaser has been found, the transaction was secret The "Cullinan" found at the Premier ie by Fred Wells, the manager, who, while for a stroll in the walled arsa over which the "bine ground" rock wae distributed for weather. ing, caught sight of it where it lay glittering amid the debris. He could hardly believe his throne, was cut from Was Wishing Gravel for Diamonds in a Brazilian Diamond Field _ weighing diamonds by ounces, or of measuring them by inches® Recently the Jagersfontein nine, in the Orange River Colony, yielded a blue-white stone. of nearly three outiced; and an- other, 3% ounces in weight, was picked up by a Kaffir on the Dutoitspan mine dump, at Kimber. ley. Yet these finds made no great sensation, be- 'eanse they were far inferior in sife to other dia. monds previously obtained. i "A volcanic pipe is a chimney descending fito thé bowels of the earth. where everything is milter. and teperatitves ave unthinkably hit The South African diminond. mines are excava. under the influence of sun ind weathe ions made in soho chimneys, ago 10 belch fire, Rock ug out of thew is brought to the surface and spread over wide areas of ground, where it is left to disintegrate Then, witch ceased ages -eyes, ard no wonder, for the stone was 4% inches long, 2% inches broad, and 1% inches thick. It weighed 19 ounces. Think of it! A diamond eighing a pound and three ounces avoirdupois! i wag nearly three times the size of the Jagersfontein stone. Vixperts reckoned its value. in' the vough, at 345,000,000. What was to be done with it? Te find a purchaser was bbviously hopeless. The only thing te do was to chop it vm +. The stone--descrided as resembling a chunk %of extremely transparent and glittering ice--had two bad flaws, which could be gét rid of by cleav. ing it into three pieces. But whether this should be done or not was a question referred to the decision of King Edward VIL, for it was at length determined that the Transvaal government should make & present of the monster gem to His Majesty. x Media € being in a friable condition, it is washed and ex- amined for gem stones. : Thus it is that the world's great diamond crop i now gathered. But it was not until 1893 that the first real monster gem turned up. 1 was found. in June of that year, by a Kaffir Inborer, who surrendered it to the overseer of the Jagersfontein mine. An irregular crystal, . looking like the broken-off end of a. big icicle, it was of 'purest water-white in color. and tipped the scales at 71-3 ounces. lis sole imperfection was a black spot nearths centre Certain details of its structure uppehred to : indicate that the crystal had ovigionlly been par His approval being wbtained. the stone (sen: of a lrper mass. Loa db Wis, the owners ta Londen by Grdinary registered mail, and thenes { swere puraied to know what to do with it This frviivted to Amsterdam) way taken in hand by final decision was to cleave it in twain, to get rid the most skilful of living diamond-cutters. The of the black spot, and, when this had been pafeiy contemplated job was one of treméndous responsi. accomplished, the fanious "Jubilee diamond," bility, and it was vot begun until a number of named in honor of the 60th anniversary of Queen "glass models exactly like the big diamond in size | v « 4 2 = = x 7 ! * fontein stone (in 1803), Mrs. Wm. B. Leeds, Wearing Some of Her Remarkable Diamond Jewelry. had been made and split experi AL the start a slit half an inch deep was made with a metal wheel carrying diamond. dust and operated like a circular saw. Then a steel Knife was inserted, and a few sharp taps with a small hammer broke the stone in two. It was ticklish business, for a diamond, though the hardest of Known substances, is very brittle, and there was. nwo certainty that the crystal thus dealt with might not fly into dozens of fragments, many millions of dollars vanishing, so to speak, at a blow. Happily, however, no such untoward acei- dent occurred. \ By a repetition of the same process one of the two pieces was split in 'twain, thus convert. ing the great stone into the thres portions desired. It wae in this way made possible, while get. ting rid of the flaws, to obtain from the stone three huge diamonds, which 'when cut were abso. lutely perfect. Thelargest of them was a "drop brilliant" of 518% carats, 21-3 inches Jong and 13-5 inches broad, so shaped as to have the form of a heart. when. seen from above. The second was a "square brilliant," of two-thirds the weight of the first. These two largest of the three gems are to- day by far the biggest cut diamonds in existence, even the smaller one far exceeding the "Jubilee" in size. In addition to the three big "diamonds obtained from the "Cullinan," the stone yielded seven of important dimensions, and 95 minor sparklers. All of which went to compose a gift to King Edward on the occasion of his 66th birthday. » 'great drop brilliant, be estimated to worth $5,000,000, is today the most valuable ited. among the jewels of the British Crown. The square brilliant is set in the royal scepter of George V. But all of the other diamonds yielded by the "Cullinan" are the personal property of the dowager Queen Alexandra. Her husband had them made up into a necklace, the most mag- nificent probably in the world, and gave i¢ to her. - ; : Up to the time of the finding of the Jagers- the largest diamond ever known was the "Great Mogul," which was ob- tained io 1650 from the famous Golconda dig- Zmgs, in the territory of the Nizam of Hydera- bad. = There, as elsewhére, diamonils Werg pro- cured by washing old stream gravels. This stone weighed 787 carats iy the rough, and was of the shape and size of half. a hens egg. Tavernier, the famous traveler, who was an ex t . the "Orloff" is uw piece of it. The Great Cullinan Diamond in the Rough, Weighing 19 Ounces. Saw it in 1557, so that the account given of it may be considered authentic. A Venetian lapidary, then residing at the court of the Nizam, undertook fo cu* the stone, and did it so clumsily as to reduce its size to that of Balf a bantam's egg. It is supposed to have been carried off by the Persians at the sack of Delli, in 1739, and to have been brokes up to disguise it. Some experts are of the that The " ' was given by Prince Orloff to Catherine II. to com- pose a lovers' quarrel, and since that time it has been the prindipal ornament of the Russian jm- perial scepter. ' The "Great Mogul" as originally found was less in weight than the Jagerefontein stone by. nearly 200 carats. As for the eclebrated "Koh... Noor" (belonging to the British and for. merly the property of an Indian rajah), 3 Sinks hito insignificance when compared with the dismonds herein described. It weighs only 100 carats, and is not of perfect "water" having & slight grayish tinge. 5 Gv