The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-10-11
ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS,
THE WONDERFUL WORK AT PITTS
BURG.

Graphite Made by the Electric Fur
naoe-Hoyy Diamonds Have Been Pro-
duced-Why Diamonds Sometimes
Explode-one of Cecil Rhodes Mean
Tricks.
1--WE are a step nearer to the repro
duction of the diamond" So saylng'
Professor Charles e. Monroe, the ia
NOUS chemist and dean Of the Column
bian university, held up lump Oh
something that looked like metallic Lead
about two inches cube. That, ne eN-
planned, lis graphite, produced dlrectly
from anthracite coal in the electric Iur-
mace. You see that in shape 1t Is exact
Nv like q lump of hard coal, but, in place
of the CLASSY appearance OF that nlle-
raj, it has assumed metallic ulster
AS you may we'll imagine the achieve
ment which 1t represents Is OF great I'M
portance to science, as well as CONNER
cially."
But how was it accomplished, pro-
fessor And what has it to do with the
making of diamonds by artifice|
1T is easily explained, You nave
doubtless heard of ten experiments
made a few years go in Pittsburg by
70. G. Acheson who was trying to man
ulacture diamonds In the electric 1uf-
mace. He used mixture of carbon and
clay, from which, under exposure to
tremendous heat, some beautiful pur-
pie crystals were formed. At first ne
thought he had succeeded, but it was
quickly ascertained that these crystals
were an entirely new substance, a mix
ture of carbon and silicon. Under the
name of carborundum, this substance
has since come into commercial use as
an abrasive.
"All of that is ancient history. Car
borundum Is now made in large guam
titles from a mixture of coke, saWdust,
sand and salt, and recently Mr.. Ache
son has been converting the substance
into graphite by further treatment IN
the electric furnace. His discovery
that it is practicable to transform an
thraclte coal directly into graphite is
newly announced, and proof of the
claim is given by the lump which
hold In my hand.
"Of course, you know that graphite Is
pure carbon, and so likewise Is char
coal The diamond also Is pure carbon.
All three are merely different forms or
the same substance. Nevertheless,
though many attempts have been made,
nobody has yet succeeded in converting
charcoal or graphite into diamonds OF
commercial value. The most success
full effort in that direction up to date
has been that of the F>renchman Mois-
san, who has produced very tiny crys-
tails of true diamond by heating char
coal to a high temperature with iron
permitting the mixture to cool under
pressure, when the little diamonds were
crystalized out
in 1872 a chemist named Rose sue
ceeded in converting diamond into
graphite by exposing it to high tenn
perature, bedded in charcoal. Thus vpu
will see that science has been making
steady approaches toward the solu N
of this interesting problem. Achesons
new discovery brings us one step nearer
and [ may call your attention to the
fact that, whereas Moissan used a mix
ture or iron and carbon in making his
diamonds, AcheSon puts iron salts with
his anthracite coal for the purpose of
accomplishing the Transformation of
the latter into graphite.
II am averse to prediction, and YOU
must not quote me as saying that dia-
mondss Of commercial size win be man
ufactured some day All | say Is that
another step has been taken in that di-
rection Meanwhile the new discovery
Is of great commercial Importance, es-
pecially In view of the fact that the
available deposits of graphite provided
by nature are very limited. The sub
stance is now employed in the manu-
facture of pencils, crucibles, stove pol
ieh, paint, dynamo brushes and cleo
trodes, as well as in electrotyping and
as a lubricant The graphite mines of
Ceylon alone employ twenty-four thou
sand men, women and children, and in
the Ncity of Nuremberg, Germany,
which Is the home of the F'aber pen
ellis, fifty-fve hundred persons are en-
gagged In making those little writing
Instruments"
In order that the artificial diamond
shall be success it must be made
more cheaply than the natural gem.
One remembers the famous expert
ments of Professor Sage, who turned
out gold in his laboratory from the ash
es of burned vegetable substances OF
certain kinds. The result was beautiful
scientifically, but it cost twenty-five
dollars to get five dollars worth of gold
in this way. Moisean's diamonds cost
him at the rate of four thousand dollars
a carat He manufactured several
hundred of the tiny crystals, but they
were so small that all Of them together
weighed less than half carat. Under
the microscope they were very pretty
some of them being round like drop
of water, while others were eight-sded
A few contained little specks of black
charcoal, and these the chemist called
"crapauds," because they were spotted
like a frog.
II feel confident that diamonds will
be manufactured commercially some
day." said Professor Frank Clarke, OF
the United States geological survey
1.-THE solution Of the problem is not
very far off, / think. You must re-
member that the crystals do not have
to be very large III order to serve the
purpose of gems. 1t may be that the
processes will have to be conducted or
a large scale. allowing a long time per
haps. Nature, who has been The only
successful diamond-maker up to now