![]() ![]() And within days, it had reached the rest of world. Within hours, the story was swirling through the simple homes of the mining compound. ![]() 'I am sure it is just a crystal,' he said to his wife. Senior manager William McHardy, telegrammed mine owner Thomas Cullinan who also suspected the discovery was a prank. It was more than half a kilo, and ten centimetres long! At first, he thought that someone was playing a trick on him – that it was a large lump of glass – but brushing off the dirt and dust, he realised that he had unearthed an enormous diamond.īack in the mine office a worker laughed at Fred's claim, and threw it out of the window but the gemstone was quickly retrieved then weighed and measured. Using his pocket knife, Fred prodded at the object from where it protruded 18ft below the surface. A worker raced into his makeshift office saying he’d spotted something protruding from the earthen wall of the mine. It starts on a sticky summer’s evening at the Premier Mine near Pretoria when Surface Manager Frederick Wells was getting ready to go home. It sparked a treasure hunt without parallel and stories of a curse on whoever took it from the African earth. The true story of the Cullinan, found in 1905, is one of mystery, malice and maybe even murder. ![]() Thomas Cullinan is pictured holding the world's biggest diamond after it was discovered at his mine in South Africa ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |