LEMOINE'S FORMULA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 146, 19 June 1908, Page 5

LEMOINE'S FORMULA.

AN EXCELLENT HOAX. FLIGHT OF THE " INVENTOR." PARIS. June 18. The case of M. Lemoine. the French engineer, charged with having swindled a Sourh African mining magnate (Sir Julius Wernher, of Wernher, Beit, and Co.) out of £64,000, by pretending to manufacture diamonds, was called upon to-day, but there was no appearance of prisoner, who is believed to have flied from France. The envelope containing the formula' which Lemoine sold to prosecutor was accordingly opened, and contained the |' following:— j "Take powdered sugar of carbon, place • it in a crucible, raise the temperature of the furnace to 1700 or 1800 degrees centigrade, and thus obtain crystallisation. Next apply pressure to the lid, and the diamonds are then made." Experts describe the formula as as excellent hoaxLemoine, in a letter to the magistrate, stated that the owner of the factory tvhere he had gone to make diamonds, in jrder to produce some to the Court, had mpeded his experiments. If his experiments were brought to a successful con-1, ilusion elsewhere, he would reappear and ; ■ :onfound his detractors. " | \ A warrant has been issued for his !! irrest. I ! Lemoine was released in April in order > that he might have an opportunity to ; :arry out experiments to prove the truth j of his assertion that he could manufac-: ;ure diamonds. When the formula was | landed over to the French Court which | . was trying the case, Lemoine stated! ;hat it only contained a formula for the j manufacture of bort, an inferior substance used in the polishing of gems, j .