The Best And The Hardest Precious Stone, The Diamond
To recapitulate certain of the facts respecting the diamond.—This wonderful gem has the distinction amongst precious stones of being unique; though many are composed of two, three, or but a small number of elements, the diamond is the only stone known consisting of one element, and absolutely nothing else—pure crystallised carbon.
Its hardness is proverbial; not only is it untouched by the action of a hard file, but it occasionally refuses to split when struck with finely tempered steel, which it often causes to break. Such was the case with the South African diamond, for when the knife that was to break it was struck smartly with a steel bar, the first blow broke the blade without affecting the diamond, yet a piece of bort, or diamond dust, splinters, or defective diamonds (all these being called bort), may readily be pulverised in a hard steel mortar with a hard steel pestle.
The diamond is the hardest stone known, it is also the only stone known which is really combustible.
It is of true adamantine lustre, classed by experts as midway between the truly metallic and the purely resinous. In refractive power and dispersion of the coloured rays of light, called its fire, it stands pre-eminent. It possesses a considerable variety of colour; that regarded as the most perfect and rare is the blue-white colour.
Most commonly, however, the colours are clear, with steely-blue casts, pale and neutral-colour yellow, whilst amongst the most expensive and rare are those of green, pale pink, red, and any other variety with strong and decided colour.
Although these stones are sold by the carat, there can be no hard and fast rule laid down as to the value of a carat, for this depends on the size, quality, and the purity of the stone.
The larger the stone the greater the value per carat, and prices have been known to range from 25l. per carat for a small stone to 500l. per carat for a large one, whereas the exceptionally large stones possess a value almost beyond estimation.
It often happens that some stones—particularly those from South Africa and Brazil—are tinted when uncut, probably by reason of the action upon them of their matrix, especially if ironstone, or with rolling for ages amongst ironstone in river-beds, which gives them a slight metallic appearance; in each case the cause is suggested by the fact that these tinted stones are usually found in such places, and that the tinting is very thin and on the surface only, so that the cutting and shaping of the stone gets below it to the perfectly clear diamond.
From Pliny and other historians we gather that at various periods considerable superstition has existed with regard to diamonds, such as that if one is powdered it becomes poisonous to a remarkable degree; that gifts of diamonds between lovers—married and unmarried—produce and seal affection; hence the popularity of diamonds in betrothal rings.
Pretty as is this conceit, there is no doubt about the fact that the gift of diamonds to the object of one's affections does usually produce a feeling of pleasure to both parties, from which it would appear that there is some ground for the belief.
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