THE BOOK OF DIAMONDS
have been burned and most of them left no trace of ash. A number of natural diamonds have also been burned for comparison.
Since
we first began our experiments in their manufacture more than 50
diamonds have been made synthetically at McPherson College, ranging in
size from the smallest, one millimeter (about 1/25 inch) in diameter,
to the largest, which, is two millimeters by one and one half
millimeters by one millimeter, weighing 1/30 carat. This is still the
largest synthetic diamond on record. Six smaller diamonds were made in
the same experiment, in which gum arabic carbon was added to molten
iron and the mass cooled in an ice-brine solution.
Thus
the story of the diamond will always remain the romance of science—the
romance of adventure—the romance of the ages. While it is true that
the diamond is everlastingly King of Gems, and that time cannot mar the
magnificence of Nature's handiwork, it, too, is beginning to feel the
effects of this highly synthetic age. In the words of Ted Brooks of the
Wichita Beacon, "Coronado, dauntless Spanish explorer, who blazed
through Kansas in search of Indian gold, was four hundred years too
early. A modern Coronado now displaces him, not with the sword but
with science as the ally, and the object of his search is not gold, but
diamonds."
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