Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/221

Rh ablest of the Dutch lapidaries, with the aid of steam-power. The cost of cutting is said to have been $40,000—reduced, however, to some extent by the sale of the fragments.

The process of diamond-cutting has within a few years been established in the United States. Mr. Henry D. Morse, a jeweler of Boston, conceived the idea of constructing a machine for cutting and polishing the gem. While engaged in perfecting his appliances,

chance threw in his way an itinerant vender of porcelain, who had once been employed as a workman in the diamond ateliers of Amsterdam. The sight of the rough gems and the apparatus recalled to the mind of the Jew the scenes of his youth, and awakened a desire to resume his former occupation, and he offered to do the work of a diamond-cutter. But, as the process was carefully considered, it was discovered that the Jew could only cut the facets of the diamond, and the art of the subsequent polishing he did not understand. It seemed strange that an artisan who possessed the rare ability to tell at a glance how large a gem the stone would cut, how to avoid internal imperfections, and how to take advantage of the cleavage-planes, could not polish the facets after he had cut them. But such was the fact, for the two processes of cutting and polishing are widely different, and require separate instruction. However, the deficiency was soon supplied by an acquaintance who was induced to leave Holland and act as polisher in the American diamond adventure. The establishment was now complete, but the business was at first confined to recutting and repolishing gems that had been damaged by long use or accident. The inventive genius of Mr. Morse made several important changes in the machinery required by the lapidary, and displaced the rude and cumbersome apparatus of the old system. At first but two or three men were employed, but, after the discovery of the South African diamond-mines, the rough gems soon furnished abundant material, and now several men and boys are constantly employed, with the aid of steam-power.

In consequence of the success of the South African diamonds, and the abundant supply of the stones, another atelier has been established in New York, under the direction of Mr. J. Hermann. A large amount