Natural Science News. 



VOL. I ALBION, N. Y., NOVEMBER 30, 1895. No. 44 



Natural Science News. 



A Weekly Journal Devoted to 

 Natural History. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Editor and Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and Items of interest to the 

 student of any of the various branches of the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



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 Diamond Cutting. 



The diamond-cutting industry in 

 Holland was formerly confined to a 

 comparatively few Jewish families 

 in Amsterdam, the traditions of the 

 art being handed down from father 

 to son for generations. Indian 

 gems were cut up to about 1725, 

 when the Brazilian diamond mines 

 were discovered. The Dutch made 

 a favorable treaty with Portugal, 

 whereby almost the entire output 

 of those mines came into their 

 hands, and prosperity shone upon 

 the diamond cutters. 



In the beginning of the present 

 century, however, diamonds be- 

 came so scarce, through the primi- 

 tive way of working the mines, and 

 the increased demand, that all the 

 diamond - cutting establishments, 

 both in Amsterdam and Antwerp, 

 came to a standstill, and the cut- 

 ters had to adopt other occupations 

 for a living. At that time the emi- 

 nent banking firm of Hope & Com- 

 pany, London, arranged with the 

 Portugese government to take all 

 their rough diamonds at the fixed 

 price of 45 francs ($9) per carat, 

 while they sold the polished dia- 

 monds at 160 francs ($32). Fear- 

 ing that through the depression 

 and subsequent abandonment of 

 all the diamond works, the art 

 would be lost for Holland, and 

 their monopoly would then be use- 

 less, Hope & Company selected 

 seven young men whom they ap 

 prenticed at their expense with 

 some old diamond polishers. 



On the discovery of the Cape 

 diamonds in 1869-70, a new era 

 opened for the cutting trade. 



Quantities of rough diamonds 

 came suddenly to London, but 

 there were no work people to cut 

 them, at least not enough there, 

 nor in Amsterdam and Antwerp, 

 even with reinforcements from the 

 old hands who had long since 

 abandoned the trade. 



The South African diamonds 

 were first discovered in the surface 

 gravel, and were obtained at little 

 expense, hence they could be sold 

 cheaply, but as the public was yet 

 under the spell of the old prices, a 

 large margin of the profit was real- 

 ized. This naturally caused man}' 

 to leave other occupations and 

 learn the diamond trade. Every 

 one bought rough diamonds and 

 was in haste to have them cut. To 

 get ahead of the old merchants 

 these new-fledged diamond mer- 

 chants bribed the work people, 

 and so a rate of compensation was 

 established whereby the workmen 

 received princely wages. In order 

 to keep all these advantages, the 

 work people formed a union, with 

 the rules: First, not to work for 

 less than the then ruling high pay; 

 and second, not to take any new 

 apprentices, not even their own 

 sons, to learn any of the three dif- 

 ferent branches, of cleaving, cut- 

 ting and polishing. For several 

 years these rules were rigorously 

 enforced. Still a few workmen 

 held aloof from the union, and these 

 made some apprentices at a prem- 

 ium of from 1,500 francs to 2,500 

 francs for a cleaver, and somewhat 

 less for the two other branches of 

 the trade. 



After these fat years were pass- 

 ed, then arrived the lean years. 

 Rough diamonds rose in price, 

 owing to the large capital required 

 to mine them. The speculation 

 in polished diamonds fell off, the 

 union could not be kept together, 

 and wages gradually declined, so 

 that ordinary work people now 

 only make a living, though the 

 best of them are still paid like 

 artists, as some of them really are. 



Twenty-five years ago the whole- 

 sale diamond merchants of Amster- 

 dam did no exceed eight in num- 

 ber; but the development of the 

 African mines so increased the 

 trade that within the past decade 

 several diamond exchanges or 

 clubs have been established, as 

 headquarters for the transaction of 

 business. One of these, the 

 "Handelsbond" has eighteen hun- 

 dred members, and owns a fine 



building with rooms to facilitate 

 the sale of the gems. Others, 

 known as the "Adams," the "Gol- 

 conda" and the "Koh-i-nur" are 

 generally thronged with brokers 

 and merchants, as are also the 

 neighboring coffee houses. The 

 male members of these clubs are 

 called courtiers, and the female 

 brokers courtesans. At present 

 there are between fifty and sixty 

 large diamond polishing establish- 

 ments, employing some thirty-five 

 hundred polishers, but no longer 

 at the princely wages of from eigh- 

 teen to two hundred dollars a 

 week, which were paid when the 

 African mines first began to pro- 

 duce so largely, and goods of the 

 second and third quality brought 

 much higher prices. Today they 

 only receive fifteen to forty dollars 

 a week, and some even less. 

 There are ten thousand people en- 

 gaged in diamond cutting in Hol- 

 land. 



Antwerp has been rapidly be- 

 coming one of the greatest diamond 

 cutting centers. While in 1870 

 there were four mills and two hun- 

 dred diamond workers, in 1893 

 there were seventy-eight mills and 

 four thousand workers, and dia- 

 monds were annually cut to the 

 value of twelve million francs. 

 London comes third in importance; 

 there the polishers, brokers, im- 

 porters and dealears in rough dia- 

 monds must number about one 

 thousand persons. St. Claude 

 and adjouning cities in Jura moun- 

 tains, in France, have several dia- 

 mond cutting establishments, that 

 employ in various capacities about 

 one thousand people. Paris 

 comes next with several diamond 

 works; these will reach above five 

 hundred individuals. Geneva and 

 Berlin each possess a diamond cut- 

 ting shop, at each of which per- 

 haps one hundred people are em- 

 ployed; and, finally, Hanau, the 

 jewelry center in Hesse, Germany, 

 where much goldsmith's work is 

 done, and where a few years ago 

 were established two large dia- 

 mond mills, and four or five small 

 ones, all operated by steam power, 

 which employed about five hun- 

 dred persons. 



At Idar and Oberstein about one 

 thousand more are similarly en 

 gaged, giving a total of above six- 

 teen thousand five hundred persons 

 occupied in the diamond industry 

 in Europe. 



In 1887 the De Beers mining 



