The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-11-15
ALMOST GOT DIAMONDS.
The Astonishing Discovery of an AIneri-
can Chemist
Especial Correspondence may. Press.l

SAdACO CApe1 liAClO, hO Pco AAuO oA1S LII :
mace lump of clay, together with a piece
of graphite, which is pure carbon. The
result was some small wine colored
crystals of rhomboidal shape. On ex-
animation it was found that they were
harder than sapphire. Diamond is the
hardest of natural minerals; sapphire
comes next, and then ruby.
Chemical analysis proved that the crys-
tails were composed:ot carbon and silicon,
in combination hitherto unheard of.
1t does not occur in nature The process
above described, repeated again and
again, produced the wine colored rhom-
Dolds every time. A company has been
!ofmed to manufacture them for polish
Ing all sorts of things, even diamonds.
Ihey are crushed to powder like emery
ana made into wheels with cementing
compound. The demand for them is
already greater than the supply
Artificial Gems
Mr.. Kunz, the famous expert in gems,
believes that most of the precious stones
will eventually be produced artificially.
All of them are very simple in their COM
position-the diamond, for example, is
pure carbon, and the ruby is almost pure
alumina-and the problem is merely to
make their elements crystalize properly
Chemists, who have hitherto confined
their attention to taking things apart, are
beginning to learn how to put them
together again. The English professor
Maskelyne. manufactured diamonds in
his laboratory several years ago, though
they were too small to have commercial
Vqlra Eroaro1nc hou r,rodnoQ6 NV
accident at the pottery works of Sevres.
Rich mines of various kinds of gems
have been discovered recently in the
United States. Exquisite tourmalines
from newly found. deposits have reached
the Geological Survey from California.
They are green, with red center, the
core of the crystal being Of the latter
color, and the effect not merely optical
Beautiful sleeve buttons are made Of
them. S
opaIs by Accident. #
A deposit of superb opals was struck by
accident in the State of Washington not
long ago. A jeweler of Yonkers N. Y,
travelling in that region, CHANGED to spy
a fine fire opal among some stones that
had been thrown out in digging well.
On investigation the rocks in that neigh
borhood were found to contain numerous
cavities filled with precious opals, from
the size of a pea to that.of a hens egg.
A new turquoise mine is being worked
on an extensive scale near Los Cerrillos,
New Mexico. 1t yields stones equal in
beauty to the finest obtained from Persia
A single specimen has been sold for ST.
600 Fresh deposits have also been dis
covered near Silver City, in which neigh
borhoOd is an ancient Indian cemetery.
In every grave beads of turquoise are
found. In fact the Aztecs used to gather
the precious material centuries before
the Spanish came. They split it out of
the rock by first heating the latter and
then pouring cold water upon it. This
process damaged the turquoise, often
changing it's color to green.
American Diamonds.
Diamonds are always the most interest
ing of gems, though at present market
rates rubies are far more valuable.
They have been found in California,
North Carolina, Georgia, and recently
in Wisconsin, but discoveries have been
rare and accidental. But apparently
there are very few of them in the United
States. They are chiefly restricted to a
belt of country along the east flank of
the Alleghenies from Virginia to Georgia
where they occur among gravel and earth,
commonly associated with gold. The big
gest one wss dug up in 1854 at Manches-
ter, Va, by a laborer grading the streets.
He got $500 for it, but it was afterward
sold for Sc, 600. 1t weighed 25 carats in
the rough. About 100 diamonds, rang
ing from a quarter of a carat to five ca
rats have been found in North Carolina
and perhaps 200 in California, some of
them as big as four carats.
In 1870 two men named Arnold and
Slack claimed to have found great de-
posits Of diamonds in Arizona. They
was deposited in bank in San Francisco
and also $4,000 carats of ruEies. A COM
pany was formed to work the field.
Capitalists visited it and picked up LOCO
carats of diamonds and 5000 carats of
rubies within week. Great enthusiasm
was felt, and large sums of money were
invested in the enterprise. 1t was
fraud The supposed mine had been
"salted" with quantities of rough stones
bought in London and scattered about
The alleged rubies were garnets, and
the big diamond was a piece of quartz.
The promoters of these swindIes realized
$3.50, 600 out of them.
Spoiled the Gem
A superb black diamond. as big as
small acorn was found one day in North
Carolina by persons who crushed it, be-
lieving that this kind of gem could not
bebroken. Many choice one has been
destroyed in this way by hammer and
anvil, with the intention of testing its
quality. AS matter of fact, the dia-
mond, though SO hard, is brittle and
readily splits if struck properly Benja-
min Disraeli, afterwards Lord Beacons-
field, once dropped the famous Koh-in-
DOR upon tiled floor. causing great
fright. Eight tons of diamonds have al
ready been taken out of the mines at
Kim berley, South Africa, representing a
value in the rough of $3.50, O00, 900.
Sapphires are often found in Montana
gold sluices. Those gems are regularly
mined in connection with gold in that
State along the Missouri river. The
largest beryls in the world are obtained
| at Grafton and Acworth, in New Hamp-
shire One of them tipped the scales at
| 5000 pounds.
The finest known garnets are obtained
| in the country of the Navajo Nation, in
northwest Naw Mayjpo and north ga at