Air Liners With Strong Boxes

Wanganui Chronicle, 19 January 1948, Page 7

Air Liners With Strong Boxes

In prewar days diamonds were shipped to London, but nowadays traffic is mostly by air, so much so that air liners have been equipped with strong boxes. When a valuable consignment arrives at London Airport a special armed guard awaits the aircraft. On arrival at the Diamond Trading Company’s offices teams of hawkeyed girls begin the tedious task of

sorting. This is done entirely in daylight and, in the northern hemisphere, in a north .light; below the Equator, in a southern light. Without this precaution sorters would be unable to detect the quality or the flaws in the uncut stones. To the “sights"—the periodic sales —buyers are invited from all over the world. The -rough stones, sorted and graded into "little parcels," are usually worth anything from 18,000 to £30,000. Until 1940 some 90 per cent, of the world’s diamonds were cut and polished on the Continent, and in Antwerp alone about four-fifths of all supplies were prepared for the jewelry trade. But when the Nazi tide swept Europe many of the cutters fled elsewhere —to America, Palestine, South Africa and Britain. Like most crafts, diamond cutting runs in families. It takes ten years at least to become an efficient cutter, and even then there is a good deal more to learn. Only one person in four ever makes the grade, for to shape and polish four or five diamonds simultaneously on a schyve—the cutting disc which moves at 2,500 revolutions a minute—needs infinite patience and skill.