ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 80, 2 April 1908, Page 6

ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS.

A MYSTERIOUS POWDER. NATURE OF INGREDIENTS. Believers in Lemoine's secret process for making diamonds continue to come forward. Lord Armstrong, Mr. Percy Jackson, and MM. Normandin, Moine, and Gravereaux have all witnessed the process and believe it genuine. A close friend of Lemoine's now claims that the inventor once actually told him the secret of the powder from which diamonds rer suited. The powder is, he says, made chiefly of sugar chemically purified and exempt from all phosphates, etc., and of the sap of p. vegetable very rich in carbon, and also purified of all silicates, phosphates, etc. This mixture is placed in a special crucible sold by a German arm. On bewig withdrawn from the electric furnace the crucible is cooled in sand, steam, and cold water. Sometimes the crucible itself partly melts and spoils -the powder. Otherwise the powder is crystallised into pure diamonds. M. De Poittcvin, the investigating magistrate, who will again examine Lemoine, has examined a new witness, M. Koechlin, an engineer, who met Lemoine eight years ago and undertook jointly with Lemoine a number of experiments, not for the purpose of chemically producing dia. monds, but for the purpose of producing a body which could be used for cutting diamonds. The result of the experiments then carried out was the production of several small crystals, which were submitted to Professor Moissan for his opinion. Professor Moissan found that the crystals were of no use as diamond-cutting instruments, but could be utilised for iSie purpose of cutting emeralds and rabies. M. Koechlin informed the magistrate that he became dissatisfied with Lemoine as a collaborator, and decided to continue his experiments alone. "I used to go and visit Lemoine," he says, "at his mother's flat in the Rue d'Uze3. His mother carried on a dual business. She had an artificial flower warehouse, and she also travelled in aiamonds. Lemoine was always careful not to take his mother into his confidence." Dr. Wurtz, the celebrated and eminent chemist at the Paris Faculty of Medicine, thus expresses his opinion on Lomoine's alleged discovery: "It is evident that any organic matter treated with sulphuric acid will produce carbon, and what is a diamond but pure carbon? After all, it is quite possible that some unknown person may have succeeded in producing chemical diamonds. In course of time; I have little doubt but that it will be possible to produce chemical diamonds with cese, but I do not think this will come about for another half-cen-tury." Dr. Chassavant, who was closely associated with the late Professor Moissan in his diamond-producing experiment, says: "In spite of Lord Armstrong, I have my doubts about Lomoinc's diamonds."