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The largest diamond in the world. Diamond "Cullinan"
At present, there are many fine precious stones in the world, but none of them is compared to the huge stone mined in 1905. The world's largest diamond was found in a South African mine near the city of Pretoria.
History of the African mine
Thomas Cullinan began to work as a mason. After accumulating a small amount of money, he decided to look for diamonds. A few kilometers from Pretoria, he purchased the Elandsfonthein farm in 1904 and worked effectively on it. He chose very carefully and stopped his gaze on the site with a hill. The hill, as it turned out later, was formed over the kimberlite pipe, on which the Premier mine was located. Its name was given to the head of government, who was present at the opening of the mine.
Unique find
In the afternoon , the head of the mines, Frederick Wells, conducted a daily check. His attention was attracted by an unusually bright reflection of some object. Inside the pit, 5.5 meters deep, he saw a splinter. The subject strongly reflected the rays of the sun and did not look like glass. Going down into the pit, he carefully extracted the largest diamond in the world with a knife. Having checked his hardness, he was happy to see that he had a precious stone in front of him. For his unusual finding Wells received a reward of 10 thousand dollars, and she was named after the head of the diamond mining company - Sir Thomas Cullinan, who came to the mines on that day.
African giant
Masters of mining, it was clear that the stone found - this is part of a larger giant, the size of which can be more than 2-3 times. The largest diamond in the world was the size of an adult's large fist and far exceeded all the crystals ever found in all corners of the world. Its initial weight was 3106 metric carats. The stone surprised not only with its impressive parameters, but also with excellent quality. It was absolutely transparent and colorless. A small crack formed on its surface. It was because of this small defect that it was decided to split the giant into several separate stones.
A huge nugget was sold to the government of the Transvaal for 150 thousand pounds.
Traveling gorgeous crystal
According to the official version, in November 1907 the stone was donated for the birthday of the great monarch Edward VII as a token of loyalty to the attached colony after the Anglo-Boer wars. In fact, the "gift" was very expensive for the British Treasury (almost a million dollars), and the diamond was sold.
At the end of January 1908, the diamond was transferred to the diamond cutting company in Amsterdam, and on February 10, Master Abraham Ascher started work. The most interesting thing is that the insured from Africa, the world's largest diamond traveled on a warship, and across the Strait of La Manche calmly moved into the jeweler's pocket on a simple ferry for passengers.
Royal Diamonds
In order to study the structure of the giant and correctly determine the place of impact to split it into several parts, it took some time. In the stone an incision was made, a special knife was placed in it and with one strong stroke they broke it. Not every master has to break a giant diamond, which for a long time quietly dozed in the earth's interior, on several smaller stones. The master was very nervous. The crystal was so strong that only with the second attempt it was possible to split it into two large stones, the size of 2029.94 and 1068.09 carats, and three small pieces. The first Cullinan (photo shows it in the form of a drop with 74 facets and weighing 530.2 carats), King George V called "Big Star of Africa". It became the largest diamond in the world. He was placed in the upper part of the power scepter, which is in the Tower of London. Of the second large stone, the jewelers made a Cullinan 2 diamond of 317.4 carats, having 66 faces - the second largest crystal in the world. For this giant (base parameters - 4.3x4.1 cm) the place was determined in the imperial crown, which is in the Tower. Of the remaining pieces of diamond material, two more large diamonds were made - pandelions, whose weight was 94.4 carats (Cullinan 3) and a square-shaped crystal weighing 63.65 carats (Cullinam 4). Since 1911, they are in the crown of the English queen. Later, in 1959, they were given a place in the brooch.
Cullinan 5, weighing 18.8 carats, was cut in the form of a heart and inserted into a brooch. It was intended for Queen Mary. Later, he was withdrawn from there and inserted into the crown of the female crown. Cullinan 6 weight 8.8 carats with a cut "Marquis" was very fond of Elizabeth II. She gave the order to strengthen the crystal in a diamond-emerald necklace, which she often wore in her youth. Diamond Cullinan 7 has a weight of 11.5 carats and a facet of the Marquess, Cullinan 8 cuts an emerald and weighs 6.8 carats, Cullinan 9 - 4.4 carat weight, pear-shaped cut.
In addition to large diamonds, the largest diamond was made smaller: 5 weights up to 4.4 carats and 96 miniature precious stones weighing 7.55 carats. The total weight of all the precious stones together is 1063.65 carats. During jewelry processing, 65.75% of losses from the total mass of the giant found.
The artistic cutting of all the stones after the split took four years. As a result, 105 diamonds were made. The largest diamonds in the world are nine large precious stones, which are pride of the English crown.
The World War and the Present
In wartime, small diamonds in the company with other expensive relics were carefully hidden in tin cans and buried in a field near the Windsor Palace. Large crystals were stacked in hat boxes and hidden in one of the secret passages of the castle.
Currently, Cullinan 1 (54h44h29 mm) - the largest diamond in the world (after the "Golden Jubilee"). Beautifully cut in the shape of a pear, he adorns himself with the scepter of the great monarchs of England and, together with his other famous brethren, is in the Tower.
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