Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1897-11-11
HARDER THAN A DIAMOND
A French Chemlst's Discovery OF " NV"
Kind of Crystal.

.,,,.,,,sts Discovery OF Now
Kind Of Crystal.
1Jonr, Moissan, the distlheuisn0"
French chemist who created sehsa-
tion a few years ago by ptouu s..,e
small white diamonds in his eiec.ilo
furnace, is now credited with aho.hen
interesting achievement, says .ne ss ~,
York Tribune. This latter pie'e
work while perhaps not quite SO SUD.
fling as the other, will probably p.o's
of more practical benefit to mahh1na
and hence a source Of greater fe'e''0N
to M. Moissan. or.
Hitherto the diamond has peeh Gun
sidered the hardest thing III i'a'ul.'
The closest approach to 1t, until fecen.
w. was made by the ruby. Somethlne
halfway between them, in this respect
was discovered only two or tnfee
ago by e, C. Acheson Of PittsDufe' VIM
was experimenting with an electrlc
furnace for an entirely dillereh' pu
pose, He, too, was trying to maAo
artificial Jewels, and succeeded III ses
ting a lot of small crystals whlcn weie
neither diamonds nor rubies. put wole
harder than the latter. Ihey we1o
composed of sixty-nine parts OF silica
and thirty-one parts of carbon ie'n
nically the substance is "carpiue VI
silicon" The discoverer, hoWeVer'gave
to it the name carborundum. ana 10
now manufacturing about two tons OIL
it daily at Niagara Falls for chenica'
purposes. 1t is used for the same puf-
pose as emery.
Moissan's new product is carbide OF
the rare metal titanium. Inc proper
materials having been deposited IN
small crucible made of lime, an electrlc
current of large volume and 10" Voit-
age is turned on, temperature OF 4'ooo
or 5000 degrees Fahrenheit is devel-
oped, and then the stuff is allowed 10
cool. The resulting crystals are sald
to be harder than diamonds, which now
take the second place. Carborundum
comes next and the ruby drops to the
fourth rank.
The carbide of titanium is as mucn
harder than carborundum as carborun-
dunn is harder than emery. The latter
two are only good for abrasive service;
that is, they are employed only for
grinding and polishing other very hard
substances. 1t is probable that car
bide of titanium will have much more
extensive USE There are many rock
cutting drills which consist of tube,
in one edge of which are embedded
brown or black diamonds. M. Mols-
sans new product will be both cheaper
and more efficient than these. 1t may
also be substituted for real jewels in
watches, delicate balances and in other
mechanism where small bits of partic-
ularly hard material are needed as
bearings. The discoverer has applied
for patents on his invention in this
country as we'll as Europe, and it Is
thought probable that the French aca-
denny will award him certain $4,000
prize offered some time ago for a sat-
isfactory substitute for black diamonds.
Titanium, when pure, is white, and
about half as heavy as iron. 1t is al
most impossible to buy any because
there is no demand and consequently
no production. However, it is not so
very scarce. An oxide of titanium,
found in the form of small black stones
that give a red mark, is picked up in
some newly plowed fields in Pennsyl-
vania and sells for 81 pound. The
metal is frequently found in combina-
ton with iron, but hitherto has been
regarded as nuisance, because it rem
ders an ore refractory. A recent writ
er says: millions of tons of iron ore
in Virginia and New York are made
worthless by the presence of or 6 per
cent of titanium."