FAMOUS DIAMONDS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5737, 4 November 1905, Page 11

FAMOUS DIAMONDS.

The announcement on September 6th, that another large diamond has been found on the Premier Diamond Company's property is especially etr.king in that it comes within twenty-four hours of Sir William Crookes's intimation at Kimberley that other portions of the great Cullinan diamond ■uere likely to bo found. The Cullinan diamond, weighing 30*25$ carats, or 1.371 b avoirdupois, is the largest in the world, while the diamond whoso discovery is now announced is said to be practically flawless, and weights 460 carats, or nearly four times the weight of the famous Koh-i-noor after its second cutting. In his lecture at ivimberlcy Sir William Crookes, speaking of the Cullinan diamond, which was discovered in January last, said, "It is a fragment, probably less than half of a distorted octahedral crystal; the other portions still await discovery bv some fortunate miner. Through this unequalled stone I parsed a beam of polar.sed light in various directions, and could see colours in all cases, the brightest appearing when the light passed along the greatest diameter —about four inches. Here the colours were very fine, but no regular figure was to 'be seen. These observations show that the diamond is in state of internal strain/'

Sir William also made the interesting statement that more diamonds are found in fragments and splinters than in perfect crystals, and that although these splinters and fragments must be derived from the breaking up of a large crystal, yet in only one instance have pieces been found which could b© fitted together, and* these occurred at different levels. ■ The stone that comes next after the Cullinan, said Sir William, is that discovered at the Jagerefontein mine (tho Excelsior), which weights 070 carats, or over half a pound. The weights of other large famous diamonds are:

The discovery of big diamonds is, according to the famous scientist, not so uncommon as is generally supposed. Diamonds weighing an ounce are not infrequently found at Kimberley, and the largest diamond discovered there was of carats, or nearly 4oz troy. It is interesting, moreover, to recall the fact that on the very day that the great Premier stone was discovered another diamond weighing 120 carats was found on the property. The shape of this brilliant is said to be more regular than that of the Cullinan, and a rough estimate placed its value at .£IO,OOO. ■

The Excelsior diamond, weighing 970 carats, to which reference has already been made, was found at the Jagersfontcdn mine in 1893. That the largest stones are not always the beet is shown by the fact that the most valuable diamond found at Kimberley weighed 150 carats, and was worth -COO. 000 According to Sir "William Crookes about 2,000,000 carats of diamonds are turned out of the Kimberley mines every year, and by the end of 1901 ten tons of diamonds had come from these mines, valued at .£60,000,000 sterling. This mass of blazing gems could be accommodated in a box sft square and Gft high. ,

Nizam of Hyderabad Carats. ... 279 Kohinoor, after second cutting ... 106 Loterie d'Angletorr© ... 49 Orloff ... 194 Kohlnoor, after first cutting ... ... 279 Regent or Pitt ... 137 Duke of Tuscany ... 133 Star of the South ... ... ... 124 Polo Star ... 40 Tiffany, yellow" ... 125 Hope, blue ... 44 Sancy ... 53 Empress Eugenie ... 51 Shah. ... 86 Nassak ... 79 Pacha of Egypt ... 40