Diamonds and precious stones, a popular account of gems .. . this pur-pose united and arrayed all the Bunsen piles thathe could procure at Paris, and so obtained a currentof prodigious intensity. The carbon was immediately reduced to vapour,and was soon deposited in the forrm of fine dust onthe walls of the vessel in which it was Despretz would have it that the carbon hadbeen volatilized ; and no one who attended his lec-tures at the Sorbonne can forget the profound dis-dain with which he would exhibit the glass globeall blackened interiorly, and exclaim, And yetthere are people w
Diamonds and precious stones, a popular account of gems .. . this pur-pose united and arrayed all the Bunsen piles thathe could procure at Paris, and so obtained a currentof prodigious intensity. The carbon was immediately reduced to vapour,and was soon deposited in the forrm of fine dust onthe walls of the vessel in which it was Despretz would have it that the carbon hadbeen volatilized ; and no one who attended his lec-tures at the Sorbonne can forget the profound dis-dain with which he would exhibit the glass globeall blackened interiorly, and exclaim, And yetthere are people who maintain that carbon cannotbe volatilized! With all due respect for this emi-nent opinion, it is probable that the carbon was ftoi ARTIFICIAL DIAMOND. 21/ volatilized, using that word in its common accep-tation, but that it was merely molecularly dis-sociated. However this may have been, the resultswere completely inadequate to the production ofthe diamond. Violent means having failed, M. Despretz changedthe system. For the currents of the pile, intense. Fig. 89.—M. Despretzs arrangement for the Production of the Diamond. and incessant, he substituted currents of induction,intermittent and feeble ; and in place of continuingtheir action for several hours, maintained them inactivity during entire months. The results of his new experiments M. Despretzsubmitted to the Academy of Sciences. 2l8 PRECIOUS STONES. He made use of a glass vessel similar and simi-larly fitted up to that known as the electric egg(see Fig. 89). To the lower rod he attached acylinder of pure carbon, an inch or so in length,and nearly half an inch in diameter. To the upperrod he affixed a bundle of fine platina wires. Henow exhausted the air from the balloon, and thedistance from the wire to the carbon being abouttwo inches, he then passed an inductive current byRuhmkorffs apparatus. The luminous arc was suffused with a red tinton the side next the carbon to a short distancefrom the platina; the part whi
Size: 1903px × 1313px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectgems, booksubjectprec
