INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



only recently developed there this country does not 

 compete at all with the older sources of supply. 



Certain straight-laced, Puritanically minded per- 

 sons who are inclined to condemn the diamond as a 

 useless bauble, must find some satisfaction in the 

 knowledge that this gem is a most useful indeed, an 

 indispensable substance for certain mechanical pur- 

 poses. The most important of these is in forming 

 the cutting surface of the diamond drill for use in all 

 kinds of mining operations. The diamond drill is, 

 to the miner, what the compass is to the mariner. 

 For making it the imperfectly crystallized or otherwise 

 defective stones, unsuitable for cutting into gems, 

 and which are known as "boart," are used. Such 

 pieces, when set in the end of a steel tube which is ro- 

 tated by machinery, make a drill that will cut its way 

 through the hardest rock. Not only cut through, 

 but bring to the surface pieces of the rock through 

 which the drill is passing, so that the miner, working 

 many feet above, can keep himself informed as to the 

 nature of the successive strata beneath him almost as 

 well as if the intervening layers were removed. He 

 can locate an ore-bearing stratum, or vein of coal, 

 find its exact thickness, and determine its quality, 

 without the laborious, expensive, and frequently dis- 

 appointing process of sinking a shaft. Thus the ill- 

 favored and deformed relative of the useless bauble 

 of fashion plays an important part in a most important 

 industry, and acts for the community at large, and in 

 this way helps to remove the stigma from the name of 

 its more beautiful and favored sisters. 



