The record-union., 1897-04-15
WONDERS OF SCIENCE.
Have We at Last Discovered How to
Make Diamonds
Gems That Are Said to Have Fallen
Upon the Earth From
the Sky.

measured by it's value in the market is
at the same time one of the greatest of
| mysteries. The alchemist who could
turn base metal into gold would be a
| poor man beside the chemist who could
! change the black lead of his pencil
into diamonds. The one would get $40
an ounce for his yellow metal and the
| other $4,000 for the same weight OF
shining gems
Now, singularly enough, the more
profitable of these two much-desired
achievements Of science is the one
winch, at present, seems the more like
ly to be accomplished. No progress
whatever has been made in the attempt
| TO produce gold out of any other form
| OF metal ,and while recent discoveries
concerning the qualities of those mys-
| terlous elements, helium and argon,
seem likely to upset some of the pre-
vailing theories of chemists, yet no ev-
idence has been found that there is a
step or series of steps, leading from
| lead, or iron, or copper, or silver to
| gold. Gold is gold and nothing else,
and when in a pure state always the
same
1t is quite different with diamonds. A
graphite in a lead pencil and the blaz-
ing string of gems scintillating on the
neck of a princess are all carbon, and,
as far as their chemical composition is
concerned, they can hardly be distin-
| guiShed one from another.
| Nature has great secret here. How
| does she manage to make one and the
same element appear in so many differ
| CT wi
identity, and yet having different prop
critics and values in these various
forms? She does not do that with
gold and silver. She has bestowed a
certain unknown quantity of the prec-
lous metals upon the earth, and if man
ever exhausts the supply he will not,
as far as we can at present see, be
able to supply the deficiency But in
| the case of the most precious of all
her gifts, diamonds, nature seems to
invite man to test his ingenuity by
showing him that she has placed an
unlimited supply of carbon within his
reach, and holding before his eyes the
possibility of turning that carbon from
a form in which it possesses little val
ue into one wherein it becomes the
symbol and token of vast wealth. And
as II further to tempt him, she allows
him to see that she herself can effect
the transformation.
Man long ago accepted the challenge
and set to work to clear up the myster-
les of the diamond. But for many
years he worked altogether in the dark
and make very little progress In the
meantime nature, as if made bolder by
his failure, allowed him to get another
tantalizlng peep behind her curtain.
/ She had been sprinkling diamonds up
on the earth from the skyi Some of
these diamonds We're discovered five
or six years ago in this country The
place where they were found seemed ap-
! propriate to such a stroke of magical
| fortune. 1t was in that region of nat
ural wonders, Arizona, and near a grim
chasm called the Canyon Diablo, or the
! Devils Canyon.
Prospectors, looking for something
very different, came upon large masses
or iron. AT first they believed they had
| discovered mine of pure iron, and the
! question arose how it could be worked
with profit. Presently it was seen that
TINS was not ordinary metal, but that
KIND of iron which occasionally falls
from the sky in the form of meteorites.
SUCH masses are to be seen in various
| parts of the world There is a huge
chunk OF meteoric IRON from which the
natives have for many centuries cut
Off portions to make knives, fish hooks
ana spear heads, in Labrador, and last
summer Lieutenant Peary tried in vain
| to get it aboard ship and bring it to
| the United States.
AS soon as the Arizona prospectors
found out what was the nature of the
iron they had discovered they sent
specimens of it to a chemist in PhiIa-
delphia- He tried to cut it with chisels
but his chisels were split and DESTROYED
in the effort Wonderful iron that"
he said, and then he put it on an emery
wheel to polish it and thus bring out
the peculiar marking which he knew
that true meteoric iron exhibits when
thus treated. The obstinate iron ruined
the wheel. What in the world ails
that meteorite?" said the chemist. and
thereupon he placed it under a micro
scope.
1t was sprinkled full of minute black
diamonds, which had shivered the steel
chisels ana cut the hard emery like SO
many crystal knives. Further search
revealed white diamonds also, very
small, it is true, but yet perfectly genu-
ine
The examination was continued and
the fact was proved beyond question
that the iron containing these diamonds
was really meteoric. that is to say, that
1t mad actually dropped from the sky,
and was not created on the earth.
MAKING ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS.
Now, this was hint not to be neg
| lected. Something of the same kind.
though perhaps not quite as striking
ana convincing, had previously been
! discovered IN Siberia. So the chemists
pushed their experiments with renewed
vigor and hope. Finally M. Henri
| MolsSan OF Paris, who a few weeks ago
visited this country and lectured on
his discoveries by taking advantage of
| the tremendous heat developed by the
| electric arc, made a furnace in which
he could easily melt almost every
known form of matter. Remembering
the hints nature had given. and sus-
pecting that he now had in his hands
! some of her rarest means of working
apparent miracles, NJ. Moissan melted
some iron, dissolved a little carbon in
the form of graphite in the molten iron.
and after subjecting the combination
to the fearful heat of the electric fur
mace allowed it to cool. When he broke
open the cooled mass of iron he found
within 1T, as he had expected. minute
| shining crystals, which proved to be
genuine diamonds. The carbon, under
the conditions of heat and pressure to
which it had been subjected had