THE DIAMOND-FAKER.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 484, 17 April 1909, Page 5

THE DIAMOND-FAKER.

) 0 ARRESTED IN PARIS. • (DT TELEGRAM— PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPTBIOET.) ,' \ Paris, April 15.' ! Lemoine, who was charged with swindling ' Sir Julius Wernhor out of £64,000 by pretend- ! ing that ho could niako diamonds) and who (. (led after ho had boon liberated on bail in d oider to giro him, a , chance to provo his skill, has"bcen arrested in tho , Ruo do Wagram,. in. Paris. Lsmoino had been living at an hotel since j Friday last, disguised, and (under an assumed t name. After his flight ho went to Sofia, Budapest, Vienna, and Trieste. Ho had boen' in London sinco November. ARITIFICIAL DIAMONDS. ; A great deal was heard in 1908 of tbo artii ficial manufacture of diamonds. A French engineer, named Lemoino claimed to havo dis- ' covered the secret, and persuaded Sir Julius ' Wernher, who is largely interested in Dβ Beers mines, to advance Mm lnrgo sums, fitntod to ) have amounted to JC6t,OOO, for experiments. X Letnoino wae arrested in January, on a charge - of fraud, but wis afterw.irds liberated to carry 5 on his experiments, and subsequently disapi peered. The artificial manufacture of dia- ■ mohds has,'■ however, been achieved. The natb ufal conditions under which the diamond is 1 formed wore stated by Dγ: A. E. ■ H., Tiitton. -' F.R.S., in two articles in the "Times' Engineer ing Supplement" on February 5 and 12, 19DS, 3 Diamonds are formed bv the'crystallisation of 1 liquid onrbon enveloped, in'molten rock cant taming much iron and under great pressure; Mr. J. B. Hannay.and Mr. Sydney Afarsden in 1880 claimed to nave produced'small crystals somo black and _ some transparent. In 1891-5 . the .late M. Moissan repeated Mr. Marsdcn's experiments; but ceuld not obtain transparent diamonds. In 1897 Sir William Crookes re- ' pcated M. Moissan's first experiments successfully,'and they were also confirmed by Prof. 5 Mfljordna in IS9G. ' In 1905, however, by the [ aid of his electric furnace, M. Moiesan produced transparent diamonds possessing all the properl ties of the natural gem, but so small that the . largest was only 140 of an inch in diameter. f It seems that only in the immense underground laboratories of Nature can the operation be , carried on on a scale sufficiently large to pro- . duce commercial diamonds. : f ". :"' -" '.' ." .;...;■ "'..V' i ' ■ . ; ' . ! ■ '■ . ' .■■.■'