OCR Text |
Show ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS. - A great deal has been said lately of the discovery of a method of making diamonds. At first the discovery was denied, and lastly it was declared true, that something that behaved like a diamond had really been made. It was a pure crystal; it would cut sapphire, it split like a diamond; and burned like a diamond. The chemist who has succeeded in making these diamonds is J. B. Hanny, of Glasgow, Scotland, and the process may be briefly described. A hydrocarbon gas - that is, a gas compound of hydrogen and carbon - is forced under enormous pressure into a very strong iron tube about four inches in diameter, and having a bore of only one inch. Chemicals containing nitrogen that have a tendency to combined with the nitrogen, and thus leave the carbon free, are placed into the tube with the gas. Under great pressure and at a red heat, this is said to take place, and on breaking the tube open, the pure carbon is found as minute crystals on the inside of the tube. These crystals are the artificial diamonds. They are very small; it takes a long time and much labor and money too make them, and they are of no value whatever as diamonds. They are too small to be of any use, and if any young gentleman thinks that when the time comes for him to buy an engagement ring he can get an artificial cheap, the poor girl will be dead, or married to another man, before that day appears. This is the whole of the matter- diamonds can be made, but it's not worth while to make them. |