. The American encyclopædia of commerce, manufactures, commercial law, and finance. amond powder and a i> countrymen continued to follow out the artwith great success, but some two centuries agothe English cutters wore the more trade then reverted to Holland, but is againreturning to Britain, where many of the fineststones are cut. The method has undergone littlechange, and is still chiefly effected by the hand,partly by rubbing one stone on another, partlyby a wheel and diamond powder. Where thereare flaws or large pieces of value to be removed,they are occ
. The American encyclopædia of commerce, manufactures, commercial law, and finance. amond powder and a i> countrymen continued to follow out the artwith great success, but some two centuries agothe English cutters wore the more trade then reverted to Holland, but is againreturning to Britain, where many of the fineststones are cut. The method has undergone littlechange, and is still chiefly effected by the hand,partly by rubbing one stone on another, partlyby a wheel and diamond powder. Where thereare flaws or large pieces of value to be removed,they are occasionally cut by iron wires armedwith the powder, or split by a blow of a hannnerand chisel in the direction of the natural cleavage. 18 DIAMOND 274 DIAMOND The latter is, however, a dangerous process, astlie D. is very brittle, and many valuable gemshave been thus destroyed. When reduced to aproper form, the facets are polislied on a lapi-darys wheel. The process demands not only preatskill, but much time and labor. The period re-quired to reduce a stone of 24 or 30 carats to a. Fig. 129. — SuoffiNO CuTTiNi regular form extended formerly to at least sevenor eight months of constant work; but the lime isnow greatly shortened by the use of machinerydriven by steam. Jewellers have long cut D. inthree forms, — the brilliant, the rose, and hriUianl is most esteemed, as giving highesteffect to the lustre, and implying less reduction ofthe stone. It is, as it were, a modification of the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublisherbostonesteslauriat
