Henry Alexander Miers

“ The meteoric occurrence has even suggested the fanciful notion that all diamonds were originally derived from meteorites. The meteoric iron of Arizona, some of which contains diamond, is actually found in and about a huge crater which is supposed by some to have been formed by an immense meteorite penetrating the earth’s crust.
It is, at any rate, established that carbon can crystallize as diamond from solution in iron, and other metals; and it seems that high temperature and pressure and the absence of oxidizing agents are necessary conditions. ”

“ A recent application of the diamond is for wire drawing; a hole tapering towards the centre is drilled through a diamond, and the metal is drawn through this. No other tool is so endurable, or gives such uniform thickness of wire.
Distribution and Mining.—The most important localities for diamonds have been: (1) India, where they were mined from the earliest times till the close of the 19th century; (2) South America, where they have been mined since the middle of the 18th century; and (3) South Africa, to which almost the whole of the diamond-mining industry has been transferred since 1870. ”

“ It is only in the more northerly part of the country that the pipes are filled with blue ground (or “kimberlite”) , and that they are diamantiferous; but over a great part of Cape Colony have been discovered what are probably similar pipes filled with agglomerates, breccias and tuffs, and some with basic lavas; one, in particular, in the Riversdale Division near the southern coast, being occupied by a melilite-basalt. It is quite clear that the occurrence of the diamond in the S. African pipes is quite different from the occurrences in alluvial deposits which have been described above. ”

“ In a very few years, however, the open pit mining was rendered impossible by the mud rushes, by the falls of the masses of barren rock known as “reef,” which were left standing in the mine, and by landslips from the sides, so that in 1883, when the pit had reached a depth of about 400 ft., mining in the Kimberley crater had become almost impossible. By 1889, in the whole group of mines, Kimberley, Dutoitspan, De Beers and Bultfontein, open pit working was practically abandoned. Meanwhile mining below the bottom of the pits by means of shafts and underground tunnels had been commenced ”

“ Carvill Lewis believed the blue ground to be true eruptive rock, and the carbon to have been derived from the bituminous shales of which it contains fragments. The Kimberley shales, which are penetrated by the De Beers group of pipes, were, however, certainly not the source of the carbon at the Premier (Transvaal) mine, for at this locality the shales do not exist. The view that the diamond may have crystallized out from solution in its present matrix receives some support from the experiments of W. Luzi, who found that it can be corroded by the solvent action of fused blue ground ”

“ Diamond may break with a conchoidal fracture, but the crystals always cleave readily along planes parallel to the octahedron faces: of this property the diamond cutters avail themselves when reducing the stone to the most convenient form for cutting; a sawing process, has, however, now been introduced, which is preferable to that of cleavage. It is the hardest known substance (though tantalum, or an alloy of tantalum now competes with it) and is chosen as 10 in the mineralogist’s scale of hardness ”

“ The best glaziers’ diamonds are chosen from crystals such that a natural curved edge can be used. For rock drills, and revolving saws for stone cutting, either diamond, bort or carbonado is employed, set in steel tubes, disks or bands. Rock drilling is the most important industrial application; and for this, owing to its freedom from cleavage, the carbonado is more highly prized than diamond; it is broken into fragments about 3 carats in weight ”

“ The other minerals found in the concentrates are pebbles and fragments of pyrope, zircon, cyanite, chrome-diopside, enstatite, a green pyroxene, mica, ilmenite, magnetite, chromite, hornblende, olivine, barytes, calcite and pyrites.
In all the S. African mines the diamonds are not only crystals of various weights from fractions of a carat to 150 carats, but also occur as microscopic crystals disseminated through the blue ground. In spite of this, however, the average yield in the profitable mines is only from 0·2 carat to 0·6 carat per load of 1600 lb, or on an average about 11/2 grs. ”

“ The diamond has also a somewhat greasy feel. The specific heat increases rapidly with rising temperature up to 60° C., and then more slowly. Crystals belonging to the cubic system should not be birefringent unless strained; diamond often displays double refraction particularly in the neighbourhood of inclusions, both liquid and solid; this is probably due to strain, and the spontaneous explosion of diamonds has often been observed. Diamond differs from graphite in being a bad conductor of electricity: it becomes positively electrified by friction. ”

“ The terraces can be worked at all seasons, and the material is partly washed out by leading streams on to it. The washing of the plateau material is effected in reservoirs of rain water.
It is difficult to obtain an estimate of the actual production of the Minas Geraes mines, for no official returns have been published, but in recent years it has certainly been rivalled by the yield in Bahia. The diamond here occurs in river gravels and sands associated with the same minerals as in Minas Geraes ”

“ The Panna group were the most productive during the 19th century. India was no doubt the source of all the large stones of antiquity; a stone of 673/8 carats was found at Wajra Karur in the Chennur group in 1881, and one of 2101/2 carats at Hira Khund in 1809. Other Indian localities besides those mentioned above are Simla, in the N.W. Provinces, where a few stones have been found, and a district on the Gouel and the Sunk rivers in Bengal, which V. Ball has identified with the Soumelpour mentioned by Tavernier. ”

“ The Rio Abaete district was worked on a considerable scale between 1785 and 1807, but is now abandoned. Diamantina is at present the most important district; it occupies a mountainous plateau, and the diamonds are found both on the plateau and in the river valleys below it. The mountains consist here of an ancient laminated micaceous quartzite, which is in parts a flexible sandstone known as itacolumite, and in parts a conglomerate; it is interbedded with clay-slate, mica-schist, hornblende-schist and haematite-schist, and intersected by veins of quartz. ”

“ The localities at which the diamond has been supposed to occur in its original matrix are the following:—at Wajra Karur, in the Cuddapah district, India, M. Chaper found diamond with corundum in a decomposed red pegmatite vein in gneiss. At São João da Chapada, in Minas Geraes, diamonds occur in a clay interstratified with the itacolumite, and are accompanied by sharp crystals of rutile and haematite in the neighbourhood of decomposed quartz veins which intersect the itacolumite. It has been suggested that these three minerals were originally formed in the quartz veins. ”

“ Unlike other cubic crystals, diamond experiences a diminution of refractive index with increase of temperature. It is very transparent for Röntgen rays, whereas paste imitations are opaque. It is a good conductor of heat, and therefore feels colder to the touch than glass and imitation stones. ”

“ When the tunnels reach the side of the mine they are opened upwards and sideways so as to form a large chamber, and the overlying mass of blue ground and débris is allowed to settle down and fill up the gallery. ”

“ For the extraction and treatment of the blue ground the De Beers Company in its great winding and washing plant employs labour-saving machinery on a gigantic scale. The ground is transferred in trucks to the shaft where it is automatically tipped into skips holding 96 cubic ft. ”

“ They are similar to the “etched figures” produced by moistening an octahedron of alum, and have probably been produced, like them, by the action of some solvent. Similar, but somewhat different markings are produced by the combustion of diamond in oxygen, unaccompanied by any rounding of the edges.
Diamond possesses a brilliant “adamantine” lustre, but this tends to be greasy on the surface of the natural stones and gives the rounded crystals somewhat the appearance of drops of gum. Absolutely colourless stones are not so common as cloudy and faintly coloured specimens ”

“ In more modern times there has been the same excavation of shallow pits, and sluicing, sifting and sorting, by hand labour, the only machinery used being chain pumps made of earthen bowls to remove the water from the deeper pits. ”

“ The largest specimen found (1895) weighed 3078 carats. Both bort and carbonado seem to be really aggregates of crystallized diamond, but the carbonado is so nearly structureless that it was till recently regarded as an amorphous modification of carbon.
Uses of the Diamond.—The use of the diamond for other purposes than jewelry depends upon its extreme hardness: it has always been the only material used for cutting or engraving the diamond itself. ”

“ The Koh-i-nor, which was in 1739 in the possession of Nadir Shah, the Persian conqueror, and in 1813 in that of the raja of Lahore, passed into the hands of the East India Company and was by them presented to Queen Victoria in 1850. ”

“ It was known as the Cullinan Diamond. This stone was purchased by the Transvaal government in 1907 and presented to King Edward VII. It was sent to Amsterdam to be cut, and in 1908 was divided into nine large stones and a number of small brilliants. The four largest stones weigh 5161/2 carats, 3093/16 carats, 92 carats and 62 carats respectively. Of these the first and second are the largest brilliants in existence. All the stones are flawless and of the finest quality. ”

“ These have been for the most part discoveries in alluvial deposits of the goldfields, and the stones were small. In Tasmania also diamonds have been found in the Corinna goldfields. Europe has produced few diamonds. ”