In our last newsletter, we began what appears to be an ongoing series of gem-related patents dating back more than a century, uncovered and shared by William “Bill” D. Hoefer Jr., GG (GIA), FGA — educator, expert in appraisal law, and host of the website Appraising Demystified. This is patent number two in that series.
At first glance, this patent could easily have been passed over. The language itself becomes an obstacle to understanding what the inventor was actually proposing.
Phrases such as “manufacturing the natural mineral carbon” can initially give the impression of an attempt to create synthetic diamond. A closer reading shows that John Dickinson of Bay Ridge, New York, was not trying to make diamond at all. He was focused on shaping and orienting natural diamond so it could function more effectively as a cutting material.
This was quite bold for the time. And it connects to the patent we discussed last week!
Diamond “Engineered”
Dickinson’s 1869 patent “Improvement in the Preparation of Mineral Carbon for Use in the Arts” describes shaping natural diamond — what he calls “natural mineral carbon” — into specific forms: drill points, cutters, and tools meant for working (grinding, sawing, drilling) stone, metal, and other hard materials. (see image below)
The goal wasn’t to create something new. It was to make diamond cutting tools work more consistently, more predicably.
Before this period, industrial diamonds were often irregular fragments, set into tools with little control beyond trial and error. Dickinson proposed something more deliberate: shaping diamond crystals into purposeful geometries and orienting them so their hardest working directions faced the job — and then mounting them securely so they would stay put.
He doesn’t use crystallographic language. That would come later. But the thinking is unmistakable. Rather than relying on whatever diamond fragments happened to be used, the patent treats diamond as an engineered cutting material.
Diamond Saws Already Existed — Just Not for Diamonds
By the mid-19th century, diamond-charged tools were already in use. They cut stone, masonry, ceramics, and hardened metals. The technology itself wasn’t new.
What was new was the mindset.
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There was an unspoken assumption at the time:
Diamonds could cut everything — except other diamonds.
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Dickinson doesn’t challenge that belief outright. He wasn’t trying to saw diamonds. But by showing that diamond could be shaped, oriented, and held securely under stress, he quietly undermined the assumption that diamond was not sawable.
That’s when the later patent (from our last newsletter) suddenly came into focus.
The Moment It Clicked
Reading Dickinson’s work with that perspective, it became hard not to think ahead.
If diamond can be shaped deliberately…
If it can be oriented intentionally…
If it can survive sustained cutting forces…
Then why couldn’t a diamond crystal itself be sawn?
That realization — whether anyone recognized it at the time or not — leads directly to the diamond saw patent associated with Loesser. (Last week’s Newsletter Patent discussion.)
Loesser’s Leap Wasn’t a Better Saw — It Was a Better Question
There’s no evidence that Loesser approached diamond sawing with formal theory or a deep understanding of crystal physics. That kind of science simply did not appear to be available yet. [Loesser: American Cut – the First 100 Years – Al Gilbertson, pp. 69-71.]
What is likely is that he adapted diamond-charged saws already used in industry, and experimented — adjusting speed, pressure, feed, and orientation — to see whether a diamond crystal could survive the process at all.
That was the real gamble.
Loesser didn’t invent diamond abrasion. He challenged a belief that had gone unquestioned: that diamonds must be cleaved, not sawn. Once that barrier fell, the implications were immediate. Diamonds could be planned, divided, and optimized in ways cleavage alone never allowed. Yield could be managed. Shapes could be designed.
Modern diamond cutting didn’t begin with theory. It began with someone willing to try.
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Sidebar: What Does It Mean to “Charge” a Diamond Saw or Polishing Wheel?
When 19th-century patents describe a saw or polishing wheel as being “charged,” the term is purely practical.
Charging means embedding diamond abrasive into a metal surface so the tool can cut or polish.
No electricity. No chemistry.
How it worked
- The saw blade or polishing wheel — often cast iron — was coated with oil or grease
- Diamond powder, made from crushed boart or broken stones, was applied
- Pressure and motion pressed the diamond particles into the metal
Once charged, the metal holds the diamond in place — and the diamond does the work.
(For more on this subject, see Basil Watermeyer, Diamond Cutting: A Complete Guide to Diamond Processing; Jack Ogden, Diamonds: An Early History of the King of Gems; and Eric Bruton, who discusses this practice over several pages in his textbook, Diamonds.)
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Grinding, Polishing, and Directional Hardness
Diamond hardness is directional, which is why orientation matters when sawing and grinding, and why cutters pay close attention to how a diamond is presented to a tool.
A polishing wheel, or scaife, charged with diamond powder presents millions of microscopic cutting edges attacking the diamond surface from many directions at once. Coarser diamond powder removes material more quickly, while finer powder is used to produce smooth, mirror-like finishes. In polishing, the direction of hardness matters primarily in the diamond being polished, not in the powder itself, which is randomly oriented in all directions within the wheel surface.
Because of this random abrasion, polishing can overcome directional hardness through pressure, speed, and technique rather than precise crystal alignment. Cutters understood this long before it could be explained scientifically — through experience, sound, pressure control, and feel.
Sawing a diamond is similar. The diamond powder on the blade, like the scaife, is randomly oriented, with the sawing process highly directional. For sawing to succeed, the diamond crystal must be oriented so that a softer cutting direction is presented to the blade.
Why This Patent Matters
Dickinson wasn’t trying to invent synthetic diamond. Loesser wasn’t trying to reinvent industrial tooling. But together, these patents mark a shift in how diamond was understood — from an object to be worked around, to a material that could be shaped, oriented, controlled, and ultimately used on itself.
What makes the 1869 patent so compelling to the diamond cutting industry isn’t what Dickinson intended. It’s what his work quietly made possible.
