ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9213, 16 April 1908, Page 2

ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS.

LEMOINE'S FORMULA. United Press Association— By Electri* Telegraph — Copyright. (Received April 16, 8.8 ajtn.)

LONDON, April 15,

The Divisional Court ordered tlio Union of London Smiths' Bank to doliver to the Botv Street Magistrate the packet supposed to contain Lomoine'fi formula for diamond-making. Lord Alvestone remarked that tfoo Court had not been directed as to what the Magistrate should do 1 with the packet.

(Lemoine says he discovered his " process " in 1905, and in that yeaT convinced Sir Julius Wernher, of Wernhor, Bet and Co., that there was somothing in it. Sir Julius advanced several sums of money, and an experintent eventually took place in the presence of the magnate, a cruoible being placed in a furnace made white-hot by electricity. After some time the crucible was taken from the furnace, and Lemoine drew 'out a. diamond.. The magnate, believing ho was being imposed upon, did not consider the trial conclusive, and requested that rfc should be made again in the presence of experts. Lemoine refused the request, saying that under those conditions his secret would be stolen from him, as he would be obliged to reveal his formula. In the end, being of opinion that he hadi been the victim of a clover swindle, the magnate lodged a. complaint with the French police authorities, and Lemoine was aarested and placed in the Santo prison. Interrogated by M. le Poitevin, eacamining magistrate, Lemoine, with M. Labori as his counsel, deolared that the formula really existed, and that he had declined to make a fresh trial because he had been hurt by the suspicions of the magnate. It has since been reported that the examining magistrate discovered that in his experiments Lemoine used fusible plugs in the crucibles to conceal real dia/monds.)