The morning call., 1895-02-11
UP TO DATE IDEAS.

Before long diamonds of marketable size
will be produced by artifice,' said Professor F.
w. Clarke, the famous chemist OF the Geologi-
cal Survey, to n correspondent of the Boston
Transcript recently. ''I think that the predic-
ton is fairly safe one. Already We know
now to make them, though only very small
ones Moissan, 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 becomes crystallized. simultaneously,
kroustchof, in St. Petersburg, has got diamond
crystals by a similar process, employing silver
instead of iron.
These artificial diamonds are scarcely big
enough to be seen with the naked eye, but
they represent the solution of the problem OF
crystallizing carbon So much being accom-
pllshed, it may be confidently expected that
crystals OF greater size will soon he produced.
IL mas been argued that in the laboratory the
processes OF nature can only be limited ON
contemplate scale, but you must remember
that crystals of carbon need not be very big in
order to possess value as gems. Furthermore,
chemists have already succeeded in making
very large crystals OF q great variety OF sub
stances, some OF them weighing as much as q
pound
at is easy to find out what any kind OF
precious stone is made of by the ordinary pro-
cesses of analysis. The problem then is merely
10 take the elements thus ascertained and put
tnem together in the proper crystalline iorm,
initiating the methods of nature How are
diamonds formed in nature? Nobody knows
with certainty, but a shrewd guess at 1t has
been made The greatest existing diamond
field is in South Africa. There eruptive matter
from deep in the earth seems to have burst out
through a surface layer of shale, the latter be-
Ing very rich in carbon. Slow cooling followed
ana the carbon was crystallized out, as in the
experiments of Moissan and Kroustchof.
"RubieS are now made by artifice. They are
just as handsome ss genuine ones, and, If it
comes to that, it can hardly be said that they
are not genuine, inasmuch as they are of the
same material The only difficulty in the way
OF their manufacture for market is that people
do not want them, regarding them as counter
felt. On that account jewelers. 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 bub-
bles are microscopic and do not interfere with
the beauty of the gem. 1t is almost impossible
to get real ruby that has no flaw in it.
"Of course, you are aware that the rubies are
to-day the most valuable Of all precious stones,
far exceeding the diamond. A gem as big as q
pea, of the first quality and of the true pigeon
blood color, will bring $1,000. Rubies are
crystalized corundum, which is oxide of
aluminium. Sapphires ore of the same
material. They also are initiated with sue
cess in the laboratory. The process most COM
monty employed in the manufacture of rubies
is to fuse together small ruby sparks which
are cheap enough, by means of electricity.
This work with rubies and sapphires has been
done by Frenzy and Fell in Paris"