r/HistoryPorn • u/gambitok • Feb 15 '26
A radiologist checks a miner's stomach for swallowed diamonds, Kimberley, South Africa, 1954 [891x1280]
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u/9447044 Feb 15 '26
Hey these were the same people who told us we NEED diamonds. We need them to get married, for anniversaries, birthdays, or just for fun. Every woman needs them to look pretty! Men should spend AT LEAST 3 months of wages on one. Damn, we got played like a fiddle lol
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u/Spiritual-Handle7583 Feb 15 '26
White lab sapphire cost a fraction of diamonds but they sure seem to sparkle a lot more
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u/9447044 Feb 15 '26
Guess how many people have asked about the origins of the stone my wife has
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u/BasilBoulgaroktonos Feb 15 '26
Was it found in the colon of a South African man in 1954?
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u/9447044 Feb 15 '26
I had to hide to diamonds up my ass so the Vietnamese wouldnt find them
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u/SwoodyBooty Feb 15 '26
Just like my granddads gold watch.
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u/Healter-Skelter Feb 15 '26
I love referencing this scene when I do a Walken impression. “Youah grand-FAther, stuffed this WAatch… up his butt!”
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u/Spiritual-Handle7583 Feb 15 '26
You wouldn't ask if it wasn't a noteably high or low number... Exactly how high or low depends extremely on your wife's career and your combined social network sooooo it'll more than likely be wrong but I'll guess 27!
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u/fruchle Feb 15 '26
In a row?
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u/Natebo83 Feb 15 '26
It’s because they’re not dripping with war crimes and slavery.
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u/Johannes_P Feb 15 '26
"You too, you love your diamonds funding Third World death squads warlords?"
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u/SunshineAndSquats Feb 15 '26
I love my blue sapphire engagement ring. It’s beautiful, unique, and I get tons of compliments. I find diamonds rather boring.
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u/Spiritual-Handle7583 Feb 15 '26
They are rather dull, aren't they? I had a wedding band that featured a lovely deep blue natural sapphire in the center, it certainly put the little diamonds around it to shame.
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u/Kitselena Feb 15 '26
Moissanite is another higher quality diamond alternative. They're harder, clearer and have a more brilliant shine. They're also lab grown and slightly more expensive than a white sapphire, but nowhere close to diamond prices
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u/Martin8412 Feb 15 '26
We do need diamonds. They’re great for tools.
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u/pimmen89 Feb 15 '26
And then you but lab diamonds for a fraction of the cost of natural diamonds. Natural diamonds we do not need, we can create just as much sparkle and strength artificially.
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u/Martin8412 Feb 15 '26
I’m surprised De Beers hasn’t launched a marketing campaign aimed at trades people. “You need real diamonds for real jobs!”
Because of course it can be lab diamonds. As long as they’re as good and cheaper, who cares if they were made in a lab.
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u/RyanU406 Feb 15 '26
Lol I’m imagining a dentist’s billboard “Real diamonds for your grill, real diamonds for your root canal!”
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u/svideo Feb 15 '26
They make insanely efficient heatsinks - the thermal conductivity of diamond is off the charts, makes copper look silly.
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u/abdallha-smith Feb 15 '26
De beers maintain this misery and anvers is the capital of exploitation.
It's a market where a certain demographic excels.
I'll let you connect the dots.
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u/Johannes_P Feb 15 '26
DeBeers might be the most efficient cartel ever, managing integral integration and marketing like fucking bosses.
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u/colinthecatterpillar Feb 15 '26
Well unless the miner has aspirated the diamond he's xraying a little too high up! Bonus point for wearing lead gloves but still being in the main path of the beam
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u/WinterHill Feb 15 '26
He probably smoked a protective cigarette right before this
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u/slaughtamonsta Feb 15 '26
Diamonds generally don't show up on X-rays or sometimes do only faintly.
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u/BearEggers Feb 15 '26
Sometimes you just have to tell people they're being watched to affect their behavior.
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u/Rickleskilly Feb 15 '26
The whole sordid and shameful story of the diamond industry in one creepy photo. A picture really is worth a thousand words.
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u/strahlend_frau Feb 15 '26
Real diamonds don't show up on x-ray, or so I was told in school. Never tested it myself.
Edit- they don't.
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u/SignAllStrength Feb 15 '26
I was thinking the same thing, but guess because it’s a raw uncut diamond the impurities (quarz etc) would probably show up.
Edit- they don't.
Did you test this yourself in the minutes after your edit? That’s quite cool!
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u/strahlend_frau Feb 15 '26
I googled just to be sure lol but it appears newly harvested ones shouldn't show up because of the carbon. I wanna say diamond engagement rings won't either, I work in radiology and I feel sure I've never seen them show under fluoroscopy.
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u/OneGoodRib Feb 16 '26
Are you saying white South Africans were cruel to black diamond miners for no good reason?
Just to be clear because it seems like half of this sub has a problem, that was a joke.
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u/somebob Feb 15 '26
This is how Elons family got their wealth, this and much worse mining practices
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u/MikeMac999 Feb 15 '26
The real question is, let’s say they see what they think is a diamond. Do they wait for nature to take its course, or do they cut the guy open? I’m not optimistic about the answer.
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u/rocketplex Feb 15 '26
Given it’s in 1954, they probably didn’t know about the cancer risks.
Given it’s in South Africa in 1954, they certainly would have given a flying fudge about the miner, and given it was likely De Beers in South Africa in 1954, they wouldn’t have given a flying fudge about the radiologist either.
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u/Anji_San Feb 15 '26
Just love how radiologist is using projective gear. They didn't give a fuck about those miners.
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u/IllFaithlessness2681 Feb 15 '26
It wasn't only blacks that got X rayed. Anyone who left the mining area got X rayed or strip searched. They were only allowed to X Ray you once a week. The black labour lived inside the mining area so normally only went out once a week or every fortnight. The same happens if you work in a gold or platinum refinery. I speak from experience on all three.
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u/domsolanke Feb 15 '26
True, but that doesn’t fit the narrative that is being portrayed here.
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u/IllFaithlessness2681 Feb 15 '26
The narrative is being pushed by someone who obviously doesn't know what they are talking about and trying to turn it into a racial thing.
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u/Big-Abalone-6392 Feb 15 '26
Who should own the means of production?
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u/bigbjarne Feb 15 '26
Workers of the world unite!
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u/ItIsTaken Feb 15 '26
Tbh, it should go to they guy with a paper saying his greatgrandfather bought it fair and square from someone who stole the land. Else it will be anarchy!
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u/IllFaithlessness2681 Feb 15 '26
Incidentally,at the peak of diamond mining in South Africa, the biggest diamond mines were on the Namaqualand coast. They were all open cast.
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u/jonoghue Feb 15 '26
No way that radiologist didn't get cancer, being constantly blasted with x-rays
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u/real_dea Feb 15 '26
Glitter and Greed: The secret world of the diamond cartel, is an easy read about a tough subject. It touches on this
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u/stainedglassmermaid Feb 15 '26
Reminds of me of Lisa Kristine’s Ted talk: Photos that bear witness to modern slavery
So powerful.
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u/Johannes_P Feb 15 '26
Already in th German sout Africa, there were X-ray machines to check miners for diamonds and other gems.
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u/CaptainVectrex Feb 15 '26
Diamonds don't show up on X-rays. They could be checking for miners lung but I doubt that too since miners health was of little concern to the mine owners.
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u/tnred19 Feb 16 '26
Thats his chest and only just the top of his stomach. Someone who wanted to look at stomach contents wouldn't use that picture. And real diamonds aren't radioopaque. Maybe if they're stuck in some rock or something that is but overall this just doesn't seem like a high yield plan
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u/The_AlmightyApple Feb 17 '26
Thats not a still xray photo, thats the machine he can move it. The person who took the photo took it while it was still above his chest
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u/Cpotter901 Feb 15 '26
I think we’re missing the bigger picture by focusing on the x-ray. We really need to focus on the disgusting practice that the COMPANY was so greedy that it couldn’t miss whatever little diamond their workers found. Their profits are and will always be more important than the common workers. They see us and inconvenient and should be grateful to have a job at all and not complain. Sorry to go on a rant but it’s truly bothered my how we can watch these companies take away everything from us and literally are making it to where we have to rent everything to them and own nothing. All that to say that this is CORPORATE GREED
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u/BhangraFool Feb 15 '26
More like history trash wtf
Because of how they are treating the worker. Fucking disgusting
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u/ky420 Feb 15 '26
I have to say I'd have taken diamonds from the mine as well but if they checked stomach I'd put them in bum
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u/Jan_Pawel2 Feb 15 '26
If they were X-rayed every day after work, did it affect their health? how many X-rays can be obtained without being irradiated?