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INDUSTRIAL DIAMONDS: IN WAR AND PEACE
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it cuts right through everything and, as it goes down, a part of the
rock through which it passes is forced up inside, and the "core," which
sometimes is as much as a foot and a half in diameter, can be tested by
experts to show what lies thousands of feet below the surface of the
earth. It is thus used not only in searching for minerals but in
testing sites for buildings, bridges, and dams.
Another
instance: A few years ago London's venerable St. Paul's Cathedral,
which has at this writing withstood all the bombs of war, began to sink
rapidly. Experts were called in. They used diamond drills to test the
foundations and discovered that the rock structure far below had
disintegrated. The historic landmark, it seemed, was becoming a menace
to public safety and would have to be destroyed. But one engineer took
a final chance. He decided that if a diamond drill could discover the
cause it could afford the remedy. So he used diamond drills'to force
cement, under high pressure, down into the drill holes to replace the
natural underpinnings. Result: Bombs fall; St. Paul's Cathedral stands.
Industrial
diamonds can drill through the hardest rock, with an unequaled ease.
About a fifth of all industrial diamonds, in fact, are used in
diamond-core drills—circular diamond-set bits which whirl their way
into the earth. Another fifth of the industrials are used in single
dies which in turn are used for drawing wires. Through a single die you
can draw as much as 300 tons of copper wire—about 8000 miles—without
any variation in gauge. Even threads of cloth of gold and tungsten
wire, only .0003 of an inch in diameter, are drawn through diamond dies
in regular pro-duction. Diamonds with holes in them are fitted into oil
nozzles. to be used in the furnaces of our homes and factories. By
passing the oil through a diamond a constant,
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