PEOPLE WHO PRETEND TO MAKE DIAMONDS.
Whether or no white diamonds, of marketable value, can be produced by artificial means, as Lenioine, the man uow in custody in l'aris. asserts, is a moot (jvicstioii. But it is certain that there arc many people alive -and some dead—who claim to have made the great discovery. Mo»t «f these have been proved rank impostors, and their method of procedure lias varied scarcely at all. A crucible, a few chemicals, an electric furnace, is all the stock-in-trade that is needed, or that any of them have aspired to. The chemicals are placed m the crucible, which is then baked, cooled and broken open, when a diamond reveals itself. TJ>e trick is, of course, mere ordinary slight of hand; the gem —always a genuine one—being introduced at a moment when the attention lof the onlookers is purposely distraclled.
The inventor of the swindle appears to have been a London artisan, named Keynolds, alias "I'rolessor (jatwick," who emigrated to South Airk-a during the diammiil rush of 1870. aud sucjjeeilcn in dulling a number of niggers, by one of whom he was eventually shot dead.
Willi him In' was n man limtioil Kil ward .lours or Vernier, who obtained over CijO.UOO from credulous dupes all over the world by similar method-'. Afterwards he turned his attention from diamond ''making" to manufacturing gold. becoming known to the police of two hemispheres as 'Hold-Dust leddy.
The trick was worked in precisely the same way. and with considerable suceos-. But lie eventually made tie' mistake of attempting to impose upon 111-. St reefer, the well-known London goldsmith and jeweller, with the result that he was arrested, and sentenced to a term of imprisonment in an English gaol.
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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 72, 14 March 1908, Page 4
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288PEOPLE WHO PRETEND TO MAKE DIAMONDS. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 72, 14 March 1908, Page 4
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