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Sec. II, Ch. 1: The Diamond

Sec. II, Ch. 1: The Diamond Page of 366 Sec. II, Ch. 1: The Diamond Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
The Diamond.
61
In Sir William Crookes's remarkable researches on radiant matter, he submitted the Diamond and other minerals to the effect of the molecular discharge in vacuum tubes connected with a powerful induction coil. " Without exception," he says, " the Diamond is the most sensitive substance I have yet met for ready and brilliant phos phorescence." A beautiful green Diamond in his collection emits a pale greenish light, and becomes almost as luminous as a candle-flame Most South African Diamonds glow with a bluish light, but stones from other localities phosphoresce in various colours. Sir William Crookes finds that those Diamonds which phosphoresce most vividly under the electric discharge in a vacuum are such as become fluorescent on exposure to sunlight. He has also observed that when a Diamond is exposed to radiant discharge it gradually becomes brown or even black, in consequence of the surface becoming converted into Graphite
It has been shown by Mr. G. F. Kunz, of New York, that a very slight amount of friction is sufficient to cause a Diamond, if clean and dry, to exhibit a phosphorescent glow of greater or less intensity. The friction may be effected on either wood, cloth or metal ; but the best results were obtained by rubbing the stone on wood, in a direction across the grain.
One of the remarkable optical characters of the Dia­mond, as observed a short time ago by Sir William Crookes, is its transparency to the X rays. On the contrary, the glass which is used for fabricating imitation Diamonds is almost opaque to the Rontgen radiations ; and this difference has consequently placed in our hands a new mode of dis­tinguishing, with readiness and certainty, between false and genuine diamonds, and other gems.
Sec. II, Ch. 1: The Diamond Page of 366 Sec. II, Ch. 1: The Diamond
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