DIAMOND FAKING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 138, 9 July 1909, Page 4

DIAMOND FAKING.

Jjeinoine claimed to have discovered . the secret for the artificial manufacture I Of diamonds, and persuaded Sir Julius Wernher, who is largely interested in l)e Beers' mines, to advance him large sums, stated to have amounted to £04,000, for experiments. Lemoine was arrested in January on a charge of fraud, but '\yas afterwards liberated to carry on his experiments, and subsequently disappeared. The artificial .manufacture of diamonds has, however, been achievtd. The natural conditions under which the diamond is formed were stated by Dr. A. E. 11. Tat;. ... ;• two articles in the Times Kngineering Supplement on l'Vlmiary 5 and 12, 1008. Diamonds are formed by the crystallisation of liquid cai'bon envelopcd'in molten rack containing much iron and under great pressure. .Mr. J. 11. Ilapay and .Mr. Sydney Marsden in 1880 claimed to have produced small crystals, soma black and some transparent. In 1804-5 the late M. Jloissan repeated Mr. Marsden's experiments, successfully, and they were also confirmed by Prof. Majorana in 18!) G. Tu 1005, however, by the aid of his electric furnace, Mr. Jloissan produced transparent diamonds possessing all the properties of the natural gem, but so small that the largest was only l-40th of an inch in dia-1 meter. It seems that only in the immense underground- laboratories of Na-1 ture can tile operation be carried on on a scale sufficiently large to produce commercial diamonds,