Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1880-03-25
Mr.. HannaY,s Diamonds.

| oOA4bO hAD PACSSop Va PANNAhSAAAtS NAN
monds artiicially attracted an unusu-
ally large gathering to the weekly
meeting Of the Royal Society last night,
Mr.. Hannay, was not, however, present,
and the papers were read by one Of the
secretaries. The second paper, which
occupied only a few minutes threading,
was a +" Preliminary Note on the Arti-
fetal Formation Of Diamonds" by Mr..
Hannay. The author mentioned that
he had conceived that as gases under
great pressure and at high temperature
dissolved solids, which afterWard crys-
talized out on the heat and pressure be-
ing removed, possibly water-gas-or
gas passing from the liquid into the
gaseous cOndition--might act thus on
carbon, which might subsequently crys-
talize in the form of diamonds. In
this expectation he was disappointed.
All forms of carbon, charcoal, lamp
black, graphite, etc., refused to dis
solve under the condition presented to
them. After many failures he was
recommended by Prof. Stokes to take
advantage of the observations of Messrs.
Lieving and Dewar on the affinity of
hydrogen for certain metals, and by
this agency to dissociate the hydrogen
from the caFbons.i Heclaimed to have
eventually succeeded by submitting g a
hydro carbon in the presence of g q
heterogeneous compound" to immense
pressure and heat, with the result that
on breaking open the iron tubes in
which the experiments were performed
minute crystals of diamonds or
in other words crystalized carbon,
were found to have been deposited
as the residuum. The paper was
criticised by several fellows No
doubt was expressed as to the perfect
good faith of Mr.. Hannay. At the
same time The attitude Of the meeting
was one Of scientific skepticisn taking
the term fin aisperfectly inoffensive
meaning g-pntil furtherinformation was
afforded it. This Mr.. Hannay promised
to supply at an early date, and to per-
form the experiments if need be before
thelsoeiety or a committee appointed
byit, Meantime, the greatltrouble he.
had was, to- find vessel, in which to
make the experiment, strong enough to
bear the prodigious pressure they were
subjected tOgoIt also transpired that
Mr.. HannaY held, out no hopes Of his.
experiments ever being commercially
valuable, at present the cost Of making
about five shillings' worth Of the mean
est stones, exhibited being something
like G5. 1T is, therefore, only rich
people who can afford the pastime of
iamond-making. Professor Story
Maskelyne expressed his firm belief in
the good faith of his correspondent.
The stones satisfied every test applica-
BILE to the native diamond and, these
tests having been repeated by Professor
Roscoe, of Manchester, that gentleman
expressed an equally confident opinion
to their being genuine diamonds. The
main doubt as to their being genuine
which still fingered about Professor
Maskelyne's mind was the fact that the
stones sent him were exceedingly minute
none over the one hundred and twen-
ty-eighth of q carat in weight, and
therefore all but microsoopical. He
could not see "a single entire crystal.
All the fragments seemed as if they
were broken bits Of larger diamonds,
and one of the largest fragments more
especially. bore this character. The
fact of their being broken Mr.. Hannay
attributed to the mechanical violence
which they underwent on the heavy
iron tubes in which they were crystal
lied being broken to get them out. 4
Finallyo Professor Maskelyne, ,l though
at present considering the discovery at
best merely Of scientific interest, was
not Altogether certain that, now that
the prinoiplBihas been struck on, larger
stones might not eEentuallygbel pTos
ducqd- The stones exhibited filed a
glass tube not much bigger :, than a
quill, and We're. So small that, as Pro-
fess6f HMaskeIyne remarked it Would
takeiabout d. &6iousand of them to make
up the bulk of the smallest marketable
-LOpdOn Standard. .,..p
! Z