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INDUSTRIAL DIAMONDS: IN WAR AND PEACE
powder,
in diamond splits of various grades for sawing the pebble lenses for
spectacles and photographic lenses, and in diamond drills for drilling
holes in glass and many other unusual operations. The diamonds also are
used extensively in the form of crushed boart and carbon fragments for
the manipulation of jewels used as watch and chronometer bearings.
Cupped diamonds are used as bearings for the moving parts of electrical
meters.
In
recent years there has been a rise in the manufacture of diamond-shaped
tools, meaning tools containing shaped diamonds with sharp cutting
edges. The diamonds are shaped by the same methods as obtain in the
polishing of a brilliant or other gem diamond, although the process is
slower. These tools retain a sharp cutting edge for long periods and
permit an exceedingly smooth and accurate finish. They are invaluable
for repetition work owing to their great precision. They have found wide application principally in the turning of materials like ebonite and vulcanite and are used in the manufacture of fountain pens, pipes, and billiard balls.
Now
all this means that, in terms of war, the industrial diamond is highly
important. We must go back to the diamond capture at Bermuda. We must
remember that Washington finally barred the shipment of articles or
materials "by trans-Atlantic air-mail or by surface ships to
belligerent countries, except under affidavit that the articles had
been transferred to foreign ownership."
The
United States, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, and Russia were the
principal consumers of industrial diamonds before the war; most of them
still are. But the British had to act decisively to keep industrial
diamonds from its enemies. In this the United States began to
co-operate fully in 1941. The British control of the stones is world-
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