That graphite cannot be converted into diamond by heat and pressure alone within the limits reached in the experiments;

That there is no distinct evidence that any of the chemical reactions under pressure have yielded diamond;

That the only undoubted source of diamond is from iron previously heated to high temperature and then cooled.

That diamond is not produced by bulk pressure as previously supposed, but by the action of gases occluded in the metal and condensed into the centre on quick cooling.

In connection with these experiments it will be found interesting to read Balzac’s “Search for the Absolute,” in which it is told how after many ruinous attempts to produce a diamond by artificial means one, self-formed, is found in the old chemist’s laboratory after his death. The worth and romance of the old mines of Brazil and India are dwelt on by many of the writers of the past, and although diamonds were discovered in South Africa in the 18th Century, yet no important discoveries were made until 1867, when a large stone was found by children of a Dutch farmer, Mr. Jacobs, not far from their farm near Hopetown on the Orange River. Not knowing what the stone really was and attaching no value to it, Mrs. Jacobs gave it to Mr. Schalk van Niekerk, a neighbour, who entrusted it to Mr. O’Reilly, a hunter and trader, asking him to submit it to some mineralogist for an opinion. Mr. O’Reilly took the stone to Colesberg and showed it to Mr. Boyes, the acting commissioner for that district, at whose suggestion it was submitted to Dr. W. G. Atherstone of Graham’s Town. Thanks to his mineralogical knowledge, Dr. Atherstone proved the stone to be a diamond. It was exhibited in Paris in March, 1867, as “The First African Diamond Discovered,” and was purchased by the Cape Governor, Sir Philip Wodehouse, for £500. Sir Philip sold it to Garrards and it has changed hands several times since then. The weight of this stone was 21 carats. The famous Du Toit’s Pan was found through a Boer farmer actually discovering diamonds in the mud bricks of which his house was built.

As early as 1866, Mr. C. W. King expected that quantities of diamonds from Australia would reach the world’s markets, and there is no doubt that this expectation will be realized when those parts of the vast Commonwealth from which many diamonds have already come, have been thoroughly tested and proved. In 1885 several companies were working at Bingera, a township in New South Wales, 350 miles from Sydney, and many small but pure hard stones were found. The writer has handled some few specimens of fine blue white from Bingera, ranging from a quarter to half a carat after cutting. The hardness of the Australian gem—which may well add another point to Mohs’s scale—has counted against it, but modern cutters will not consider this a bar especially if sufficient quantities be submitted for treatment. Gold has also been found at Bingera and, as Mr. King writes: “The observation made of old by Pliny that the diamond always accompanies gold has been fully borne out by the experience of succeeding ages.” The first Australian diamonds were found in New South Wales, at Reedy Creek, near Bathurst, in 1851. In 1869 during a gold rush near Mudgee some fair diamonds were found by the miners. Professor Liversidge of Sydney describes the occurrence of diamonds at Bingera “as being situated in a sort of basin about four miles long and four miles wide, hemmed in by hills on all sides, save on the North. An old river-drift, probably an ancient bed of the river Horton, rests upon rocks of Devonian or Carboniferous age, and is associated with basalt by which it appears to be overlain. In some places the materials of the drift are compacted together into a conglomerate, so that the mode of occurrence of the diamond at Bingera strikingly resembles that at Mudgee. The minerals composing the gravels are also generally similar in the two cases, though points of difference are not wanting. Some of the diamonds are clear and colourless, others have a pale straw tint. Thousands have been found in this district, as well as in many other localities of New South Wales.” The gravels enclosed agate, sapphire, ruby, zircon, jasper, rock crystal, garnets, grey corundum, ilmenite, tourmaline, gold and tin. Mr. A. R. Pike who, with his partner, Mr. John O’Donnell, has had much experience with Australian diamonds at Inverell, New South Wales, writes interestingly concerning them. “With slates and diorites from the bed-rock, gold is found in the wash, in addition to its diamond output. Rich yields of alluvial gold have been won from the Gulgong district. The wash deposit of this field also carries diamonds and a special class of semi-precious gems. They embrace sapphires in large numbers and various tints; cornflower, blue, green, dark blue, straw, yellow, and blood-red are plentiful. The red sapphires in many cases are true rubies of the desired pigeon-blood colour. Unfortunately all the sapphires represent small flat fragments and are too small for cutting purposes.” A few months ago the writer picked out about a dozen fair but small diamonds for a “fossicker” from a little bag of different stones that he had found in Spring Creek, Beechworth, Victoria.

It is recorded that diamonds were first brought to Europe from the first known of the mines of Golconda, the mine of Sumbulpour, in 1584. The mines of Brazil were discovered in 1728. Boetius de Boodt asserted in the year 1609, his belief in the inflammability of the diamond, and in 1694 the Florentine academicians demonstrated the truth of Boetius’ belief and Newton’s deductions—Sir Isaac Newton having based his similar conclusions on the refracting power of the diamond in 1675. Boyle discovered in 1673 that when the diamond was submitted to high temperature it ejected a pungent vapour in which a part of it was consumed. In 1695 Averani experimenting with the concentrated rays of the sun on the diamond demonstrated that “it was exhaled in vapour and entirely disappeared while other precious stones only grew softer.” That the diamond can be burned is easy of proof, as is also the fact that acids have no effect upon it.

The gnomes figure in the elemental system of Rosicrucian philosophy, being described as small people who guard the mines and treasures of the earth, the precious stones and the metals. They are robust little fellows of a brown colour, and their sympathy extends to philosophic minds amongst both miners and scholars. They hate frivolity, for they are serious little fairies. Comte de Gabalis details an argument with their Prince who came to the upper earth in respect to the will of the Irish sage Macnamara. Macnamara has sympathy for the gnomes whom he calls “the unhappy guardians of treasures,” in the mystical chapters on “The Irreconcilable.” There are numerous legends of the Gnomes, the meanings of which are not difficult to interpret if the mind of the student is filled with the desire to know. It is said that these little fairies suffer much, and that when they grieve for those they have loved and lost their tears change into diamonds, which remain as the jewel emblems of pure and unselfish grief. That great old English traveller of the 14th Century, Sir John Mandeville—a copy of whose MS., said to date from the time of the author, is in the Cottonian Library—wrote that the diamond should always be worn on the left or heart side of the body, and that it is possible for a diamond to lose its occult virtue after being handled by evil people: for in the human body there is more potency for good or ill than is generally understood. There are many stories of misfortune and discord following the possessors of stolen diamonds. Ample evidence exists that substances handled by diseased persons are quite capable of conveying their symptoms to others. The Diamond, ever a symbol of purity, was regarded as a charm against all evil, but—said the philosophers—it must not be touched by evil, by lemures, incubi, succubi or by the formed or formless devils of the material and super-material spheres. In this philosophy it is advised that a woman about to give birth to a child should refrain from wearing diamonds. Rabbi Benoni wrote in the 14th Century that the diamond was capable of producing somnambulism and spiritual ecstasy, a suggestion which was acted on in the last century by experimenters at Nancy. According to Boetius de Boodt, diamonds were of different sexes, and some Hindu writers classified them as masculine, feminine or neuter.

In the Mani Mali it is stated that:

an ill-shapeddiamond carries danger
a dirtydiamond carries grief
a roughdiamond carries unhappiness
a blackdiamond carries trouble
a 3-cornereddiamond carries quarrels
a 4-cornereddiamond carries fear
a 5-cornereddiamond carries death
a 6-cornereddiamond carries fortune