The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1895-01-26

and under a suitable pressure! the car
bon cryStallizeS out, not as black lead
or charcoal powder, but as small dia-
monds. So much as been shown to
chemists for years, but no one has. yet
hit upon exactly the right fiux in which
to melt up the carbon or exactly the
right pressure for the best results.
Consequently the diamonds made by
chemists lire small and dark and
worthless as jewels. Now I, YOU know
have given up my life to this problem
given my life to it.
Il began to work at the conditions of
diamond making when 1 was IL, and
now l am 30. 1t seemed to me that
it might take all the thoughts and en-
ergies of a man for ten years or twenty
years, but ever if it did the game was
still worth the candle. Suppose one to
have at last just hit the right trick
before the secret got out and diamonds
became as common as coal, one might
realize millions. Millions!"
He paused and looked for my sym
pathy. His eyes shone hungrily. ITO
think" said he, that l am on the verge
of it all, and here"
Il had" he proceeded, "about $1,000
when I was 81, and this, I thought,
eked out by a little teaching, would
keep my researches going. A year or
two Was spent in study, at Berlin chief
~, and then 1 continued on my own ac-
count. The trouble was the secrecy.
You see if once l had let out what 1
was doing other men might have been
spurred on by my belief in the practi-
,cability of the idea, and l do not pre-
tend to be such a genius as to have
been sure of coming in first in a race
for the discovery. And you see it was
important that If 1 really meant TO
make a pile people should not know it
was an artificial process and capable
OF turning out diamonds by the ton.
So l had to work all alone. At first 1
had a little laboratory, but al my re-
sources began to run out l had to con-
duct my experiments in a wretched
unfinished room in a Kentish town,
where l slept at last on a straw mat
tress on the floor amongst all my apra-
ratus. The money simply flowed away.
l grudged myself everything except
scientific appliances. 1 tried to keep
things going by a little teaching, but I
am not a very good teacher, and l have
no university degree nor very much
education except in chemistry, and 1
found 1 had to give a lot Of time and
labor for precious little money. But I
got nearer and nearer the thing. Three
years ago 1 settled the problem of the
composition Of the flux. and got near
the pressure by putting this f1ux of
mine and a certain carbon combination
into a c~losed-up gun barrel, filling up
with water, sealing tightly and heat
ing"
He paused.
Rather risky" said I.
eyes. 1t burst and smashed all my
windows and a lot of my apparatus,
but 1 got a kind of diamond powder
nevertheless. Following out the prob
lem of getting a big pressure upon the
molten mixture from which the things
were to crystalize, I hit upon some re-
searches or Daubree's at the Paris
Laboratoire des Poudres ct Saltpetres.
He exploded dynamite in q tightly
screwed steel cylinder, too strong TO
burst, and I found he could crush rocks
into a muck not unlike the South Afri-
can bed in which diamonds are found.
1t was a tremendous strain on my re-
sources, but l got a steel cylinder made
for my purpose after his pattern. i
put in all my stuff and my explosives,
built up a fire in my furnace, put the
whole concern in, and-went out for a
walk"
l could not help laughing at his mat.
ter of fact manner. Did you think il
would blow up the house? Were there
other people in the placer?
'It was in the interest of science
he said ultimately. There was a cos
termopger family on the floor below
q begging letter-writer in the room be
hind mine and two flower women were
upstairs. Perhaps it vas a bit thought
less. But possibly some of them were
out.
when I came back the thing was
just where I left it, among the white
hot Goals. The explosive hadn't burst
the case. And then l had a problem
to face. You know time is an impor
tant element in crystalization. If yor
hurry the process the crystals are small
it is only by prolonged standing tina
they grow to any size. l resolved to lie
this apparatus cool for two years, let
ting the temperature go down slowly
during that time. And I was nov
quite out of money, and, with a big fire
as well as my hunger to keep going,
had scarcely a penny in the world.
Il can hardly tell you the shifts
was put to while I was making tn
diamonds. l have sold newspapers
held horses and opened cab doors. Fo
many weeks / addressed envelopes.
had a place as assistant to a man VIII
owned a barrow, and l used to cal
down one side Of the road while h
called down the other. Once for
week I had absolutely nothing to dc
and | begged. What n week that was
One day the fire was going out, and
had eaten nothing all day, and a littl
chap taking his girl out gave me SIX
pence to show off. Thank heaven TO
vanity! How the fish shops smell
But / went and spent it all on Goals AN
had the furnace bright red again, an
then. Well, hunger makes a fo(
of a nan
"At last, three weeks ago | let to
fire out. l took my cylinder and III
screwed it while it was still so hot tina
it punished my hands, and | scrape
out the crumbling, lava-iike mass wit
a chisel, and hammered 1t into a pow
der upon an iron plate. And / foun
three big diamonds and five small ones
AS | sat on the floor hammering m
door opened and my n~eighbor, the beg
ging letter. writer, came in. He wa
drunk as he usually is. "Nerchist
said he. You're drunk, said l. Struc
i've scoundrel,' said he. 60 to you
father said 1, meaning the father
lies. Never you mind said he, an
gave me a cunning wink. and hi
coughed and leaned against the doc
with his other eye against the doc
most and heuan 10 hahhle of how d