Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1894-10-25

YOU may think better of the puI-
chase" He turned round with his
back to the river and put his hands in
his pockets. He sighed. Il know you
will not believe me-"
Diamonds" he began-and as he
spoke his voice dropped its flavor of
the tramp and assumed something Of
the easy tone of an educated man
ARE to be made by throwing carbon
out OF combination in suitable fiux
and under q suitable pressure; the
carbon crystallizes out, not as black
lead or charcoal powder. but as small
diamonds So much has been known
to chemists for years, but no one has
yet hit upon exactly the right flux in
which to melt up the carbon or exact
ly the right pressure for the best re
suits. Consequently the diamonds
made by chemists are small and dark,
and worthless as jewels. Now |, you
know. have given my life to this prob
lem-given my life to it.
Il began TO work at the conditions
of diamond making when / was seven
teen, and now | am thirty-two. 1t
seemed to me that it might take all
the thought and energies of man for
ten years, or twenty years, but even il
it did, the game was still worth the
candle. Suppose one TO have at last
hit the right trick, before the secret
got out and diamonds became as COM
mon as coal, one might realize mil
lions. Millions
He paused and looked for sympathy.
His eyes shone hungrily. "To think"
said he, that am on the verge of it
all, and here!
81 had" he proceeded, about one
thousand pounds when / was twenty
one, and this. thought, eked out by
little teaching, would keep my re-
searches going. A year or two was
spent in study, at Berlin, chiefly, and
then continued on my own account.
The trouble was the secrecy. You see,
if once had let out what / was doing,
other men might have been spurred on
by belief in the practicability of the
idea, and / do not pretend to be such
genius as to have been sure of coming
in first in race for the discovery.
And you see it was important that If |
really meant to make pile people
should not know it was an artificial
process and capable of turning out
diamonds by the ton. So | had to
work all alone At first I had little
laboratory, but as my resources began
to run out, had to conduct my exper-
iments in a wretched, unfurnished
room in Kentish town, where / slept
at last on a straw mattress on the floor
among all my apparatus. The money
simply flowed away. | grudged my
self everything except scientific ap-
pliances. / tried to keep things going
by little teaching, but am not
very good teacher, and have no uni
versity degree. nor very much educa-
tion except in chemistry. and / found
had to give lot of time and labor
for precious little money. But got
nearer and nearer the thing. Three
years ago / settled the problem of the
composition Of the flux, and got near
the pressure by putting this fux of
mine and certain carbon composition
into closed-up gun barrel. filling up
with water, sealing tightly and heat
ing"
He paused.
Rather risky" said /.
"Yes. 1t burst and smashed all my
windows and a lot of my apparatus;
but got kind of diamond powder,
nevertheless. Following out the prob
lem of getting n big pressure upon the
molten mixture from which the things
were to crystalline. / hit upon some
researches of Daubree's at the Paris
Laboratoire des Poudres ct SalCpe etres.
He exploded dynamite in a tightly
screwed steel cylinder, too strong to
burst, and found he could crush rocks
into a muck not unlike the South
African bed in which diamonds are
found. 1t was tremendous strain on
my resources, but ] got steel cylin-
der made for my purpose after his pat
tern. put in all my stuff and my ex-
plosives, built up fire in my furnace,
put the whole concern in, and-went
out for walk"
could not help laug Ching at the mat
ter-of-fact manner. Ibid you not
think it would blow up the house?
We're there other people in the placer"
ut was in the interest of SCIENCE"
he said, ultimately. There was q
costermonger family on the floor be-
low, begging letter writer in the
women were upstairs. Perhaps it was
bit thoughtless. But possibly some
of them were out.
when ! came back the thing was
just where left il, among the white
hot Goals The explosion hadn't burst
the case. And then had a problem
to face You know time is an impor-
tant element in crystallization. IL
you hurry the process the crystals are
small-it is only by prolonged stand
ing that they grow to any size. re-
solved to let this apparatus cool for
two years, letting the temperature go
down slowly during that time And /
was now quite out OF money; and with
big fire as well as my hunger to keep
going, had scarcely penny in the
world.
~ can hardly tell you all the shifts
| was put to while was making the
diamonds. | have sold newspapers,
held horses, and opened cab doors.
For many weeks addressed en-
velopes | had place as assistant to
q man VINO OWncu IL bdTIp" anu uSCu
to call down one side of n road bed
while he callel down the other. Once
for week had absolutely nothing to
do, and begged What week that
was One day the fire was going out,
and had eaten nothing all day, and
little chap taking his girl out gave me
a sixpence TO show OH. Thank heaven
for vanity! How the ii,h-chops smeltl
But | went anl spent it all on Goals,
and had the furnace bright red again,
and then Well, hunger makes q
| fool of n man.
AT last, three weeks ago, let the
fire out. too. my cyliadcr and un-
screwed it while il was still SO hot that
1t punished my hands, and | scraped
out the crumbling, laya-like mass with
chisel, and hammered it into IL powder
! y -
| | D In