ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 243, 16 March 1880, Page 2

ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS.

If the news published from a London Special Correspondent is correct, a discovery greater than even that of tho Philosopher's Stone, so ardently sought for by the ancient Alchemists, has been made, The utmost extent of the power claimed for the Philosopher's Stone waa that it would trammute the baser metals into gold, but now a Glasgow chemist, we learn claims to have succeeded in converting black, unsightly carbon into the most precious and beautiful oi gems—the diamond. Chemists, of course, have long known that diamonds were 6imply cprbon in a crystallised form but hitherto all attempt* to solve the mystery of how tho crystallisation might be artifically effected have proved abortive. The experiments at Glasgow have been proceeding for some time past. We learn from the Home papers that at a meeting of the Glasgow Philosophical Society lin Deccmtier last, Mr. J. M'Tear, of the St. Itollox Works, stated that he hod succeeded in obtaining pure crystalline forms of carbon which he had no doubt were diamonds. The result of his experiments .had been so starting that he had shown them to Professor Tyndall, Professor Smyth, and others, who sharedIns opinion. The crystals which placed in the hands of Mr. Masl-.e!yne of tho British Museum, were said to possess all tho refracting power i>[ diamond?, and to resist acids, alkalies,, and the intense heat of the "blow-pip*. They also,, we are told scratched. g!a*n, and it only remained to be seen whether they would scratch diamonds or bo scratched by them. Heading the cable mesjago received in tha light of Iris information, there seems every possibility that the manufacture of the diamond is now an accomplished fact If so, the. discovery wul be one of the most useful made during what ia emphatically the age of inventions. There are many manufacturers—at present prosecuted with difficulty, owing to the excessive daarness of diamond dust —which wilt" now bo carried oa with ease and economy and tho result will be that tho public will get a cheaper and better article. Of course, if the discovery turns out everything that is stated of it, the price of diamonds—which has steadily been *on the decline of late years—will go down ' with run, and many holders of what are at present rare and costly gems will never cease to lament thy inquisitivensss/of that keen-witted Glasgow chemist, which lias wrung out one of the greatest secrets in nature's laboratory.