Diamonds

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private circulation, 1861 - 13 pàgines

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Passatges populars

Pàgina 16 - Around this ruby, to form the cross, are seventy-five brilliant diamonds. Three other Maltese crosses, forming the two sides and back of the crown, have emerald centres, and contain respectively 132, 124, and 130 brilliant diamonds. Between the four Maltese crosses are four ornaments in the form of the French...
Pàgina 9 - Tracing this plane therefore to the exterior, he makes on the edge of the stone, precisely in that spot, a slight nick with another diamond. He then places a small knife in that nick, gives it a light tap with a hammer, and the stone at once cleaves in two, directly through the flaw. This operation, in daily practice in the Amsterdam works, is one of the most elegant and instructive processes in the whole range of mineralogy.
Pàgina 16 - From the upper part of the arches are suspended four large pendent pearshaped pearls, with rose diamond caps, containing twelve rose diamonds, and stems containing twenty-four very small rose diamonds. Above the arch stands the mound, containing in the lower hemisphere...
Pàgina 16 - The total number of diamonds in the arches and acorns is one hundred and eight brilliant, one hundred and sixteen table, and five hundred and fifty-nine rose diamonds. From the upper part of the arches are suspended four large pendant pear-shaped pearls, with rose diamond caps, containing twelve rose diamonds, and stems containing twenty-four very small rose diamonds.
Pàgina 12 - King of ^ortugal, who, in 1489, being in want of money, parted with it to a French trader. In the sixteenth century it found its way into the hands of a Huguenot nobleman, the Baron of Sancy, who happened to be in Soleure when King Henry III. was trying to negotiate a loan. Sancy offered him, as a true subject, the diamond, and his offer was accepted ; but the messenger who was entrusted to convey it to the king (some accounts say Sancy himself) was waylaid and murdered, but had time before his death...
Pàgina 16 - ... rose diamonds. From the Maltese crosses issue four imperial arches composed of oak leaves and acorns, the leaves containing...
Pàgina 5 - ... private individuals, who carry on the workings at their own risk and profit. Slave labour is still employed, but all possible precautions are taken to prevent dishonesty. Thefts are severely punished, and rewards are offered for integrity and success in working. The slave who finds a diamond of 17 J carats, is crowned with a wreath of flowers, and led in procession to the overseer, who gives him his freedom accompanied with a new suit of clothes, and permission to work for his own profit ; minor...
Pàgina 12 - Star of the South." Under Surface. Upper Surface. The " Sancy " diamond, of 5Ц carats, has a singular history. It came originally from India, and, about the fifteenth century, was in the possession of the luxurious Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, who wore it, probably as a talisman, in the unfortunate battle of Nancy, in Switzerland, where he was killed. A common Swiss soldier, who discovered the body in a ditch, found the jewel in the clothes, and, not knowing its value, sold it for a florin...
Pàgina 10 - The cause of the wonderful brilliancy of the diamond is not popularly known. It has no inherent luminous power ; it is simply transparent, like common glass, and yet, if the latter were cut into the form of a brilliant, it could no more be mistaken for a real one than for a sapphire or an emerald. The secret, therefore, of the brilliancy of the diamond must lie in something other than its clearness or its transparency. It is owing to its great refractive power. 'When rays of white light pass through...
Pàgina 11 - Braganza" found in Brazil in 1741, and preserved, in its rough state, in the Royal Treasury at Lisbon. It is as large as a hen's egg, and weighs 1680 carats ; but doubts are entertained whether it may not be in reality only a white topaz and no diamond at all ; a supposition which, as the Portuguese Government decline to allow it to be cut or sufficiently examined, would appear quite possible. The largest authenticated diamond known is that of the Rajah of Mattan in Borneo.

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