The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-14
MAKING ARTIFICIAL GEMS.
METHODS USED BY CHEMISTS IN
MAKING DIAMONDS. RUBIEs,
AND OTHER GEMS.

From the New York Times.
In a recent lecture before the Philadel-
phia academy of natural sciences Prof.
ments in the way of making gems from
their natural constituents, and the whole
matter of the transmutation of minerals.
From the lecture these excerpts are TAX
en-.
The alterations in minerals occurring in
nature can be explained on chemical
grounds generally. and by experiment we
have reached the point in some cases Of
producing the same alterations exactly in
the laboratory
: Pyronexe, a mineral very common in
eruptive rocks, is often found changing in
nature into another mineral called horn
blende, of very much the same compost
ton. Heat pyroxene nearly to redness in
water under pressure and the surface
gradually changes into hornblende. This
is closely analogous 10 the operation in ma
tdre-the action of water, at very high
temperatures, on pyroXene changing it into
hornblende.
immense a crystal of hornblende a while
in an infusion of pyroxene, the hornblende
changes back into pyroxene.
The foregoing and like experiments are
valuable aids to the geologist in determin-
ing the character of natural changes in
rock structure.
In substerranean rocks, 10000 to $4,000
feet deep. water at enormously high tenn
pera lures (still fluid, owing to pressure)
changes minerals from their original con-
ditions into other compounds. All of the
minerals that solidfy from fusion in erup-
tive rocks will be altered by the action
of water in this way into other compounds.
The action of water under pressure at
slightly lower temperature will produce a
mica from the hornbende; so, from the
original pyroxene we can have first the
hornblende and then mica If the mica be
exposed TO the action of water at the sur
face, it will change into clay or into kaolin
All these changes have been produced art
iicially in the laboratory.
If pyroxene melts at 100 degrees cent?
grade II will probably remain liquid, when
once melted, down to l, 80 degrees That
fact is used in producing artificial crystal
ization of these minerals directly from
fusion, but If we attempt to fuse a garnet
down and crystalize it, it Immediately de-
composes into two or three other COM
pounds and we get not garnet, but
mixture of several things.
Dissolve a garnet at temperature low
er than decomposing point, and it will
crystalline.
Heat feldspar for a long time in water
(under pressure) a little above the boiling
point The change from feldspar into
kaolin takes place in the solution.
Some of the laboratory experiments in
the formation of minerals have been car
ried on continuously for eight months on
one specimen.
The formation of minerals artifcially
may be the result of design or purely ac-
cidentalf Furnaces making pig iron turn
out by-product-a Stag or cinder contain
ing the earthly parts of the ore-the lime,
alumina and silica. This Stag, when cool
ed slowly crystalizes into the form of a
very pretty mineral.
The Stag from the old William Penn fur
naces on the Schuylkill riveTSnear Spring
Mill, are almost all crystalized, wherever
there is a chance for crystalization on a
free surface. They have the form and
composition of a natural mineral which
crystalizes from lava and is not at all I'M
common in Vesuvian lava.
The attempt to form artificial minerals
has only in the last 20 years been taken
up with any thoroughness, in which time
a special work on the subject has been
published.
1t has been found possible, by running
together the constituents OF certain vol
canic rocks, to btain artifcially all the
minerals in those rocks, and-on quite a
small scale (working sometimes with only
two ounces of materia)-get specimens
of the rock, which are crystalized and have
every appearance of the natural mineral.
The artificial formation of minerals was
first attempted nearly a century ago by
Sir James Hall of England, who melted
down large number of rocks in his vicin-
ity and attempted by slow cooling to make
these rocks form in the condition of vol
canic lava
A century ago biologists were divided in
to two Scholastic Vulcanists, who believ-
ed that almost all rocks were the result
of eruptive fire, and the Neptunists, who
attribute them to aqueous action A great
many of the rocks now known to be of ig-
neous origin were claimed by the natural
lists TO have been formed from deposits
from the water.
The use of the microscope and the chlor-
ide pipe on fine fragments of minerals was
unknown a century ago; so that while Sir
James Hall did succeed in making fine
grained rock, he did not discover it, and
it was not discovered to be complete I'M
til fifteen years ago, when they were
found to be of the characters he imagined
they would turn out to be.
A great many of the experiments at
mineral building were simply attempts to
crystalize by fusion; others were carried
out by action of chemical agents-gases.
vapors of various kinds, or solutions-up-
on solid substances, and especially the
action at high temperatures of water in
closed tubes.
Where these closed tubes were original
ly Of glass; they, are now of soft steel,
lined with either gold or platinum, to
avoid corrosion; so that the water under
pressure in these tubes is made as hot
as an ordinary fire, under which circum-
stances its solvent action is enormously
increased.
In these artificial formations of minerals
the broadcast distinction must be made be.
tween the purely chemical synthesis and
the mineral synthesis II is perfectly pos
sibe, by melting together the constituents
of ordinary feldspar-that is, silica and
alumina and sodium carbonate or potash
Ito obtain a glass OF exactly the same
composition as feldspar; but that glass Is
in no sense feldspar.
Feldspar is a substance which crystal
ICES and has a definite structure entirely
different mechanically from the glass
which chemically corresponds. This glass
would be much softer than the natural
orthoclase common feldspa), and much
lighter: would melt at a lower temporal
ture and of course would have no crys-
talline structure-woud be entirely amor
phous Orthoclose cannot be made by d.