The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-12-27 00:00:00

MANUFACTURE OF DIAMONDS.

At a meeting of the Glasgow Philosophical Society,
Mr. James Macter, of the St. Rollox Chemical
Works, stated that on the 12th of this month he had
sent a commuoicatiou to Mr. Dixon, the secretary,
giving the ascertained results of some discoveries he
had made, but they were of such a startling nature
that he thought it proper to have the note kept sealed
until he had satisfied himself by all means in his
power, and obtained more competent opinions than
his own, as to the nature of these results. Since that
time he had been in London and had shown the
results to Professor Tyndall, Professor Smyth, and
others, and they s ere now in the hands of Mr.
Maskelyne, of the British Museum. They were
briefly these

After having thought carefully from time to time
over the subject, and made many abortive expsri-
ments extending over a perioi which dated ba,:k to
1866, he hAd at last succeeded in obtainiog crystalline
forms of carbon. They were perfectly pure and trans-
parent, and had all the refractive power of diamonds.
They had the erystalline form of diamonds, and re-
sisted acids, alkalies, and the intense heat of the blow
pipe. They also scratched glass, and the only other test
that remained was as to whettier they would scratch
diamonds or he scratched by them, and as to the ref rac.
tive indt x of the cry.tal itself and the measurement of the
angle of the crystals. The-e tests, as he had said, had
not been carried out, but they would be shortly, and
he hoped to put some of the specimens before the
society on a future occasion. He had no doubt in
his own mind, and neither was there any doubt in the
minds of the scientific gentlemen whom he had con-
sulted, that they were diamonds, but in the meantime
he preferred to describe them as pure crystalline forms
of carbon. The measurement of the angle of the forms
he had obtained was 1-32nd part of an inch.

MEN MILLINEES.—In former times, the ancient
sistexhood of lire Women, or Dresser?, served only
in the shops where ladies purchased their gewgaws ;
but when the Alilaners,or persons from Milan, in Italy,
first introduced their foshions into this country (and
from whence the term Milliner is derived), it is sup-
posed they also furnished us with the idea of employ-
ing the male sex for the vending of various articles of
millinery, as is the custom in that country. They
wen" fir introduced into England in 1345. The
ancient fraternity of Tire °wen became totally ex-
tinct ab ut 1765

MARVELS Or THE MlCROSCOPE.—Leuwenhoeck tells
us of anin•ated io,ects seen with the miciosc,,,i;,e, of
which t wenty-seven millions would only be equal to a
mite. Insects of various kinds are observaNe in the
cavities of a common gran of sand. Mould is a
forest of beautiful trees, with the branches, leaves,
flowers and fruit fully discernible. Butterflies are
fully feathered. Hairs are hollow tub2s. The surface
of our bodi:s are covered with scales like a fish; a
single grain of sand would cover 150 of these scales;
and a single scale covers 500 pores ; yet throu6h these
narrow openings the sweat exudes like water through
a sieve; how minute then must be its particles! The
mite makes five hundred steps in a second, Each
drop of stagnant water contains a world of animated
beings, swimming with as much liberty as whales in
the sea. Each leaf is a colony of insects, grazing on
:4 like oxen in a meadow.