Quantcast
  We apologize for any slow response. This will be fixed before October 31st Portal logo
Login/Register
Bactrian Gold Treasure from Afghanistan, coming soon....
/gemstones/streeter-precious-stones/page_078 - 2
 

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.
65
every fire and gas burner, or the decomposition of organic bodies, and which is exhaled in every breath we breathe.
One of the most beautiful, and at the same time, most conclusive of experiments, both as regards the combusti­bility and the composition of the Diamond, may be very simply performed as follows :—Fill a Florence flask with oxygen, into which pour three or four ozs. of lime-water, perfectly pellucid and clear. Through the stopper of the flask lead the two wires from a galvanic battery. Join the wires inside the flask by a fine coil of platinum wire, wound round a Diamond. Turn on the current : the platinum wire will glow white hot, the Diamond will burst into flame, and continue burning after the current is broken. The clear pellucid lime-water will become turbid and milky, owing to the carbonic acid produced by the burning Diamond forming, with the lime-water, carbonate of lime ; and finally a sediment of this solid white carbonate of lime will be precipitated, while the flask, at the conclusion of the experiment, will be found to contain carbonic acid gas.
The temperature must be very high and somewhat protracted for the burning of a solid Diamond. A much lower degree of temperature, however, will be sufficient to burn Diamond dust, if the latter be spread out on a thin red-hot platinum plate, placed over a spirit lamp. Small Diamonds will burn in a short time, if put on a plate of the same metal, and if the flame of a spirit-lamp be directed by a blow-pipe under the plate.
When a Diamond is subjected to the sun's rays in the focus of a burning glass, or heated in oxygen gas, it gives out bright red sparks while burning. In order to observe how the Diamond suffered during the process of combus­tion, Petzholdt took two sharp-angled pieces of Diamond
F
Sec. II, Ch. 1: The Diamond Page of 366 Sec. II, Ch. 1: The Diamond
Table Of Contents bullet Annotate/ Highlight
Streeter: Precious Stones and Gems
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page