Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1893 — The Diamond Cutting Business. [ARTICLE]

The Diamond Cutting Business.

It was in 1456 that the cutting of diamonds into regular forms first began to be practiced. The business is now most extensively carried on in Amsterdam, although in this country, at the present time, are many excellent diamond cutters whose services are highly valued. Of more than 30,000 Jews now living in Amsterdam it is estimated that at least 12,000 are directly or indirectly dependent upon the trade of diamond cutting. In that city such labor is poorly paid, although the greatest skill and severest honesty is requisite. Diamonds are cut in three forms, namely, the table, the rose and the brilliant. The last has superseded the first two except for inferior stones. The brilliant is a double pyramid or cone, cut off at the top to a large plane or tahle, and at the bottom to a small one, called the collet. As for the weight of diamonds, it is calculated as follows: Four grains equal one carat, 1414 carats equal once ounce troy. From this it may be seen that a diamond grain is lees than an ordinary troy grain—five diamond grains are equal to four troy grains. [Philadelphia Times.