AN EXCELLENT HOAX.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 153, 19 June 1908, Page 2

AN EXCELLENT HOAX.

THE UIAMOXJ)- FOiIMULA. JI. .LE.MOIXE MISMiXti. Keceived 18th. 9.51 p.m. Paris, June 18. SI. Lemoine, having Xlutl, tiiu envelope containing liis diamond niak-ing formula was opened. It stated: 'lake powdered sugar and carbon, place tliem in . crucible", raise tile temperature ot Wio furnace to 1700 or 1800 degrees centigrade and thus obtain crystallisation Xcxt apply pressure to the lid and diaI nionds will be then mudc.

Experts describe the formula as an excel lent hoax.

"M. Lemoine, in a letter to tho Magistrate, stated that tho owner of the laJtory impeded his experiments. If these were brought to a successful conclusion elsewhere, he would re-appear ail', confound his detractors. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Henri Lemoine, tin engineer, was ~r- (■ rested in Paris hist year on a charge ol having swindled Sir Julius Wernhcr, " South African mining magnate, out oi .US-1,001) by pretending that he could make diamonds. He denied having committed any fraud, and asserted that ."no diamonds lie had manufactured were g«- ] nuine. He stated in Court that after 1 holding his manufactured gems for three ( months for microscopical examination, j Mr. Alfred Beit, Sir Julius Wernhcr, and i others foremost in the diamond trade j ratified an agreement that the forinuU should he deposited in a London hank, Vi remain unopened until Lomoine's death, when it would become Wernher's proper ty. Lemoine declared that he \y ! 's paid I £(10,000 in connection with the contract. The French made an application tp'.'ti( ,'W.i'' ••."'let 1 et Court to order the'Mnk to produce ..the envelope which formula! „',.,<{% Court at first refused, but as Lemoiae was released on the »n----dition. that £e proved within two months that,,ho was,.al)]e to make diamonds, t'.ic P<%j?„s|72Jstrate(Sir Albert do Rutzen) ordo. >;4he Union of London and Smith's Briiik,njj!r-itcd, to produce the packet. An a-ppeti<i vas lodged against the decision, but the Divisional Court ordered thc'fcnk to deliver to the Bow street Mrji&rate the sealed packet. In giving judgment the Lord Chief Justice (Lord Alverstone) remarked that the Court did not direct what the Magistrate | should do with the packet. At the end of April Lemoine consented to the bank surrendering to the French judicial authorities the secret formula, on the examining Magistrate, M. Le Poittevin, agreeing not to open it until after the expiry of the two months required by Lemoine for the manufacture of dmi..-mds. He stated that the envelope contained merely the formula for the manufacture of bort (diamonds too coarse for ornamental setting, or small fragments of pure diamonds,, used, when rcdn<i•"••.to a powder, for polishing and grinding); 1 '

At Paris on the 11th ult. Lemoine presented the Magistrate with a miniature diamond, and made many excuses for not having produced a 300-carat stone. He requested a further adjournment ot the case to enable him to do this.

Jr. Le Poittcvin granted an adjournment till June 17th, on which date the envelope containing the alleged formula would be opened by the Court. The above cable shows what it contained.