Diamond possesses a brilliant “adamantine” lustre, but this tends to be greasy on the surface of the natural stones and gives the rounded crystals somewhat the appearance of drops of gum. Absolutely colourless stones are not so common as cloudy and faintly coloured specimens; the usual tints are grey, brown, yellow or white; and as rarities, red, green, blue and black stones have been found. The colour can sometimes be removed or changed at a high temperature, but generally returns on cooling. It is therefore more probably due to metallic oxides than to hydrocarbons. Sir William Crookes has, however, changed a pale yellow diamond to a bluish-green colour by keeping it embedded in radium bromide for eleven weeks. The black coloration upon the surface produced by this process, as also by the electric bombardment in a vacuum tube, appears to be due to a conversion of the surface film into graphite. Diamond may break with a conchoidal fracture, but the crystals always cleave readily along planes parallel to the octahedron faces: of this property the diamond cutters avail themselves when reducing the stone to the most convenient form for cutting; a sawing process, has, however, now been introduced, which is preferable to that of cleavage. It is the hardest known substance (though tantalum, or an alloy of tantalum now competes with it) and is chosen as 10 in the mineralogist’s scale of hardness; but the difference in hardness between diamond (10) and corundum (9) is really greater than that between corundum (9) and talc (1); there is a difference in the hardness of the different faces; the Borneo stones are also said to be harder than those of Australia, and the Australian harder than the African, but this is by no means certain. The specific gravity ranges from 3.56 to 3.50, generally about 3.52. The coefficient of expansion increases very rapidly above 750°, and diminishes very rapidly at low temperatures; the maximum density is attained about −42° C.
The very high refractive power (index = 2.417 for sodium light) gives the stone its extraordinary brilliancy; for light incident within a diamond at a greater angle than 24½° is reflected back into the stone instead of passing through it; the corresponding angle for glass is 40½°. The very high dispersion (index for red light = 2.402, for blue light = 2.460) gives it the wonderful “fire” or display of spectral colours. Certain absorption bands at the blue end of the spectrum are supposed to be due to rare elements such as samarium. Unlike other cubic crystals, diamond experiences a diminution of refractive index with increase of temperature. It is very transparent for Röntgen rays, whereas paste imitations are opaque. It is a good conductor of heat, and therefore feels colder to the touch than glass and imitation stones. The diamond has also a somewhat greasy feel. The specific heat increases rapidly with rising temperature up to 60° C., and then more slowly. Crystals belonging to the cubic system should not be birefringent unless strained; diamond often displays double refraction particularly in the neighbourhood of inclusions, both liquid and solid; this is probably due to strain, and the spontaneous explosion of diamonds has often been observed. Diamond differs from graphite in being a bad conductor of electricity: it becomes positively electrified by friction. The electrical resistance is about that of ordinary glass, and is diminished by one-half during exposure by Röntgen rays; the dielectric constant (16) is greater than that which should correspond to the specific gravity.
The phosphorescence produced by friction has been known since the time of Robert Boyle (1663); the diamond becomes luminous in a dark room after exposure to sunlight or in the presence of radium; and many stones phosphoresce beautifully (generally with a pale green light) when subjected to the electric discharge in a vacuum tube. Some diamonds are more phosphorescent than others, and different faces of a crystal may display different tints. The combustibility of the diamond was predicted by Sir Isaac Newton on account of its high refractive power; it was first established experimentally by the Florentine Academicians in 1694. In oxygen or air diamond burns at about 850°, and only continues to do so if maintained at a high temperature; but in the absence of oxidising agents it may be raised to a much higher temperature. It is, however, infusible at the temperature of the electric arc, but becomes converted superficially into graphite. Experiments on the combustion of diamond were made by Smithson Tennant (1797) and Sir Humphry Davy (1816), with the object of proving that it is pure carbon; they showed that burnt in oxygen it yields exactly the same amount of carbon dioxide as that produced by burning the same weight of carbon. Still more convincing experiments were made by A. Krause in 1890. Similarly Guyton de Morveau showed that, like charcoal, diamond converts soft iron into steel. Diamond is insoluble in acid and alkalis, but is oxidised on heating with potassium bichromate and sulphuric acid.
Bort (or Boart) is the name given to impure crystals or fragments useless for jewels; it is also applied to the rounded crystalline aggregates, which generally have a grey colour, a rough surface, often a radial structure, and are devoid of good cleavage. They are sometimes spherical (“shot bort”). Carbonado or “black diamond,” found in Bahia (also recently in Minas Geraes), is a black material with a minutely crystalline structure somewhat porous, opaque, resembling charcoal in appearance, devoid of cleavage, rather harder than diamond, but of less specific gravity; it sometimes displays a rude cubic crystalline form. The largest specimen found (1895) weighed 3078 carats. Both bort and carbonado seem to be really aggregates of crystallized diamond, but the carbonado is so nearly structureless that it was till recently regarded as an amorphous modification of carbon.
Uses of the Diamond.—The use of the diamond for other purposes than jewelry depends upon its extreme hardness: it has always been the only material used for cutting or engraving the diamond itself. The employment of powdered bort and the lapidary’s wheel for faceting diamonds was introduced by L. von Berquen of Bruges in 1476. Diamonds are now employed not only for faceting precious stones, but also for cutting and drilling glass, porcelain, &c,; for fine engraving such as scales; in dentistry for drilling; as a turning tool for electric-light carbons, hard rubber, &c.; and occasionally for finishing accurate turning work such as the axle of a transit instrument. For these tools the stone is actually shaped to the best form: it is now electroplated before being set in its metal mount in order to secure a firm fastening. It is also used for bearings in watches and electric meters. The best glaziers’ diamonds are chosen from crystals such that a natural curved edge can be used. For rock drills, and revolving saws for stone cutting, either diamond, bort or carbonado is employed, set in steel tubes, disks or bands. Rock drilling is the most important industrial application; and for this, owing to its freedom from cleavage, the carbonado is more highly prized than diamond; it is broken into fragments about 3 carats in weight; and in 1905 the value of carbonado was no less than from £10 to £14 a carat. It has been found that the “carbons” in drills can safely be subjected to a pressure of over 60 kilograms per square millimetre, and a speed of 25 metres per second. A recent application of the diamond is for wire drawing; a hole tapering towards the centre is drilled through a diamond, and the metal is drawn through this. No other tool is so endurable, or gives such uniform thickness of wire.
Distribution and Mining.—The most important localities for diamonds have been: (1) India, where they were mined from the earliest times till the close of the 19th century; (2) South America, where they have been mined since the middle of the 18th century; and (3) South Africa, to which almost the whole of the diamond-mining industry has been transferred since 1870.
India.—The diamond is here found in ancient sandstones and conglomerates, and in the river gravels and sands derived from them. The sandstones and conglomerates belong to the Vindhyan formation and overlie the old crystalline rocks: the diamantiferous beds are well defined, often not more than 1 ft. in thickness, and contain pebbles of quartzite, jasper, sandstone, slate, &c. The mines fall into five groups situated on the eastern side of the Deccan plateau about the following places (beginning from the south), the first three being in Madras. (1) Chennur near Cuddapah on the river Pennar. (2) Kurnool near Baneganapalle between the rivers Pennar and Kistna. (3) Kollar near Bezwada on the river Kistna. (4) Sambalpur on the river Mahanadi in the Central Provinces. (5) Panna near Allahabad, in Bundelkhand. The mining has always been carried on by natives of low caste, and by primitive methods which do not differ much from those described by the French merchant Jean Baptiste Tavernier (1605-1689), who paid a prolonged visit to most of the mines between 1638 and 1665 as a dealer in precious stones. According to his description shallow pits were sunk, and the gravel excavated was gathered into a walled enclosure where it was crushed and water was poured over it, and it was finally sifted in baskets and sorted by hand. The buying and selling was at that period conducted by young children. In more modern times there has been the same excavation of shallow pits, and sluicing, sifting and sorting, by hand labour, the only machinery used being chain pumps made of earthen bowls to remove the water from the deeper pits.
At some of the Indian localities spasmodic mining has been carried on at different periods for centuries, at some the work which had been long abandoned was revived in recent times, at others it has long been abandoned altogether. Many of the large stones of antiquity were probably found in the Kollar group, where Tavernier found 60,000 workers in 1645 (?), the mines having, according to native accounts, been discovered about 100 years previously. Golconda was the fortress and the market for the diamond industry at this group of mines, and so gave its name to them. The old mines have now been completely abandoned, but in 1891 about 1000 carats were being raised annually in the neighbourhood of Hyderabad. The Sambalpur group appear to have been the most ancient mines of all, but they were not worked later than 1850. The Panna group were the most productive during the 19th century. India was no doubt the source of all the large stones of antiquity; a stone of 673⁄8 carats was found at Wajra Karur in the Chennur group in 1881, and one of 210½ carats at Hira Khund in 1809. Other Indian localities besides those mentioned above are Simla, in the N.W. Provinces, where a few stones have been found, and a district on the Gouel and the Sunk rivers in Bengal, which V. Ball has identified with the Soumelpour mentioned by Tavernier. The mines of Golconda and Kurnool were described as early as 1677 in the twelfth volume of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. At the present time very few Indian diamonds find their way out of the country, and, so far as the world’s supply is concerned, Indian mining of diamonds may be considered extinct. The first blow to this industry was the discovery of the Brazilian mines in Minas Geraes and Bahia.
Brazil.—-Diamonds were found about 1725 at Tejuco (now Diamantina) in Minas Geraes, and the mining became important about 1740. The chief districts in Minas Geraes are (1) Bagagem on the W. side of the Serra da Mata da Corda; (2) Rio Abaete on the E. side of the same range; these two districts being among the head waters of the Rio de San Francisco and its tributaries; (3) Diamantina, on and about the watershed separating the Rio de San Francisco from the Rio Jequitinhonha; and (4) Grao Mogul, nearly 200 m. to the N.E. of Diamantina on the latter river.
The Rio Abaete district was worked on a considerable scale between 1785 and 1807, but is now abandoned. Diamantina is at present the most important district; it occupies a mountainous plateau, and the diamonds are found both on the plateau and in the river valleys below it. The mountains consist here of an ancient laminated micaceous quartzite, which is in parts a flexible sandstone known as itacolumite, and in parts a conglomerate; it is interbedded with clay-slate, mica-schist, hornblende-schist and haematite-schist, and intersected by veins of quartz. This series is overlain unconformably by a younger quartzite of similar character, and itself rests upon the crystalline schists. The diamond is found under three conditions: (1) in the gravels of the present rivers, embedded in a ferruginous clay-cemented conglomerate known as cascalho; (2) in terraces (gupiarras) in a similar conglomerate occupying higher levels in the present valleys; (3) in plateau deposits in a coarse surface conglomerate known as gurgulho, the diamond and other heavy minerals being embedded in the red clay which cements the larger blocks. Under all these three conditions the diamond is associated with fragments of the rocks of the country and the minerals derived from them, especially quartz, hornstone, jasper, the polymorphous oxide of titanium (rutile, anatase and brookite), oxides and hydrates of iron (magnetite, ilmenite, haematite, limonite), oxide of tin, iron pyrites, tourmaline, garnet, xenotime, monazite, kyanite, diaspore, sphene, topaz, and several phosphates, and also gold. Since the heavy minerals of the cascalho in the river beds are more worn than those of the terraces, it is highly probable that they have been derived by the cutting down of the older river gravels represented by the terraces; and since in both deposits the heavy minerals are more abundant near the heads of the valleys in the plateau, it is also highly probable that both have really been derived from the plateau deposit. In the latter, especially at São João da Chapada, the minerals accompanying the diamond are scarcely worn at all; in the terraces and the river beds they are more worn and more abundant; the terraces, therefore, are to be regarded as a first concentration of the plateau material by the old rivers; and the cascalho as a second concentration by the modern rivers. The mining is carried on by negroes under the supervision of overseers; the cascalho is dug out in the dry season and removed to a higher level, and is afterwards washed out by hand in running water in shallow wooden basins (bateas). The terraces can be worked at all seasons, and the material is partly washed out by leading streams on to it. The washing of the plateau material is effected in reservoirs of rain water.