The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-02-17
ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS.
Some Day They VIII BE i'm the Market
with Other Fabricated Gems.
;ton transcripts Washington Letter.

Boston transcripts Washington Letter.
Before long diamonds of marketable sizs
w. Clarke, the famous chemist of the Geo.
logical Survey, yesterday. Il think that
the prediction is a fairly safe one. Already
we know how to make them, though only
very small ones. Mossan, in Paris, has
manufactured diamonds by melting wrought
iron together with carbon and permitting
the mixture to cool very slowly. Under
these conditions the carbon became crystal
lized. simultaneously. Kroustchoff. in st.
Petersburg, has got diamond crystals by q
similar process, employing silver instead Of
iron.
big enough to be seen with the naked eye,
but they represent the solution OF the prob
lem of crystallizing carbon. So much being
accomplished it may be confidently expect
ed that the crystals of greater size will
soon be produced. 1t has been argued that
in the laboratory the process of nature can
only be initiated on a contemplate scale. butz
you must remember that crystals of cafbon
need not be very big in order to possess
value as gems. Furthermore, chemists have
already succeeded in making very large
crystals of great variety of substances.
some Of them weighing as much as pound.
1T is easy to find out what any kind OF
precious stone is made OF by the ordinary
processes Of ANALYSIS. The problem 9t then
tanned and put them together in the proper
crystalline form, initiating. the methods OF
nature How are diamonds formed in nat
ure? Nobody knows with certainty. but
shrewd guess at 1t has been made. The
creates. existing diamond field Is in South
Africa. There eruptive matter from deep
in the earth seems to have burst out
through surface layer of shale, the latter
being very rich in carbon. Slow cooling
followed, and the carbon was crystallized
out. as in the experiments of Moissan and
Kroutstchoff.
"Rubies are now made by artifice. They.
are just as handsome as genuine ones, ana.
If 1t comes to that, 1t can hardly be said
that they are not genuine inasmuch as they
are of the same material The only dill
Guilty in the way Of their manufacture for
market is that people do not want them,
regarding them as counterfeit On that
account jewellers will not sell them. for
they can be distinguished as artificial by
the microscope. Much has been said about
the bubbles which they contain, but the
bubbles are microscopic and do not inter-
fere with the beauty of the gen. 1t is al
most impossible to get real ruby that has
no flaw in 1t.
"Of course, you are aware that rubies
are to-day the most valuable of all pre-
cious stones, far exceeding the diamond
gem as big as pea, of the first quality
and OF the true pigeon-blood color, VIII
bring $1,000. Rubies are crystallized coI-un-
DUN, which is oxide of aluminium. Sap-
phsres are of the same material. They
also are initiated with successes in the
laboratory. The process most commonly
employed in the manufacture of rubes IS
to fuse together small ruby sparks which
are cheap enough, by means Of electricity.
This work with rubiss and sapplMres has
been done by Frenzy and Fell in Paris.