Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1896-10-11
A MAN WHO NAKESD|ANONDS
Professor Henri MOiSsan Has Solved
the Secret.
Works at Production Of Refractory
Metals--He Looks Upon His Dia-
mond Making as a Mere Scientific
Pastime.

The ancient alchemists devoted thein
lives to the transmutadon Of the baser
metals into gold. Their aims were self
ish ones. and they failed Now. there
has lust arrived in New York a famous
Partisan scientist who has succeeded in
transmitting coal into diamonds which
at first sight would seem a far more diff
cult operation. Yet tits no selfish dreams
of enormous wealth or personal aggran-
dizement that has prompted him 10 this
line Of study. Indesd, having developed
the fact that diamonds can be produced
by purely mechanical methods. he has
kent on the lines OF his life work IN which
these experiments were merely an Incl
dent. That life work IS the production
OF what he calls refractory metals. e.,
metals that are not easily melted by heat.
He has already produced five Of these.
which are known to science and 10 the
arts as chrome, molly odene, tungsten.
uranium and titane, and the larger usa
OF Which will eventually revoluuoniza
many Of our mechanical appliances.
When l saw him at the Murray Hill
Hotel. a few days ago, he explained that
the main object OF his journey h.ther. be-
sides a long cherished desire 10 see the
country. was the furtherance Of the use
of these metals.
America" he said. "has the natural
resources and the alert intelligence
which make this the best field for me-
chanical experiments"
In answer 10 further inquiries NJ said
that he would be present by invitations
at the Princeton sesquicantennial festiv-
tiles. and and would afterward lecture in
New York and in Chicago upon the five
new metals which he has introduced.
He does not look upon his experiments
in diamond making as anything moro
than a scientific pastime. Yet so per-
verse is the great stupid world that q Is
as the first successful producer Of dia-
monds by an artificial process that Henri
Molssan's name has become generally
known.
The Professor IS only forty-fOur years
OF age. A native Of Paris, he was the IA
vorite pupil Of BerthelOt, who early
made him familiar with all the great
problems that synthetic Chemistry has
marked down as susceptible Of solution
in the early future.
Moissan's first great triumph was in
1877, when he succeeded In isolating flu
orine by exposing anhydrous hydrohu-
Oric acid TO a strong electric current.
This was the first time that fuOrine had
ever been obtained in a pure state. So
highly was the discovery valued by the
scientific world that 10 this day Prof.
Dunstan, of the Royal Society, who was
present al the experiments, takes a vica-
ricus pride in the fact that be was the
first Englshman who ever saw fiuorlne.
Even in his college days Moissan had
commenced his investigations in the line
of diamond production, that having been
one Of the hobbies Of Ber.helol But ha
made no important advance until 1889.
STollng through the Paris Exposition,
of that year his attention was arrested
by the sight of the blue diamond bearing
clay Of South Africa. Here he Thought,
Is the environment in which nature pro-
duces her crystalline marvels. will de-
tect her in The act. He submitted some
Of this clay to careful miCroscopical ex-
hminations. His expectations were JUS
titled. He found in the clay microscopic
fragments of coal, graphite and dia-
monds. These are main forms in which
carbon makes its appearance in the
world Of matter. He then suspected.
what his later experiments demoonstra-
ted TO be a fact. that there IS no sharp
line OF demarca,iOn between any two or
these three forms, the crysDllized car
bon merely taking on greater degrees or
hardness as II changes from graphite.
whose density is 20 30 the pure white
diamond. which stands al 80.
Heat and pressure are the two agents
in this great change. So VI. Moissan de-
vised an electric furnace which would
reach a temperature OF $500 degrees
Fahrenheit, or 800 degrees above anN
temperature hitherto attained. So much
for the requisite heat How was .he ntc-
essary pressure 10 be achieved? Again
he had recourse to nature for hint He
found that diamonds were usually en-
bedded In iron ore Iron, like water, eX-
pands in passing from liquid 10 a solid
state. Evidently piece Of charcoal lad
in the course Of nature been mingled With
iron or in molten condition. When
surface. Il brought TO bear, by the nero
process Of expansion al ne centre ire
m ndOus pressure upon the embeddcd
That pressure, acting in con-
noctiCn with the neat resulted I'm turning
the charcoal into graphite Where he con
ditions were at their minimum, or into
where the conditions were "a
their maximum.
on this hint he set 70 work. He took
The purest charcoal ne could get THAI
obtained by h ating sugar until All mo
hydrogen and water are eliminated. This
charcoal he inclosed in a small cylinder
Of pure iron, and placed the cylinder INTO
q liquid bath OF two hundred gammcs
of iron matted by the electric furnace.
As soon as the cylinder likewise haf
melted. and had in the meantime dis
solved a large portion Of the carbon. IN
plunged the whole fused mass into cold
water As soon as an outer crust had
been formed he left the whole mass %
cool in the outer air
In this manner ne obtain Z somp
graphite. some brown c0l0red clarco1l
and particles Of Of a very dense crys aI-
lied carbon. which he isolated by
chemical process. Thee articifA
scratched rubies and burned ( oxygen
at a temperature OF one thq and ce-
grees. giving off carbonic q Iaey
were. in fact; diamonds. SOM Z a cHl
black. others white and bH mr.. DNt
none as large az the smallest aaH ana
some only visible through micro
scope.
Nevertheless, he had succ' in A.8
object. By processes analog moss
which nature employs in & car3oh
that particular form known nc ma