IV. On the nature of the diamond

Abstract

Sir Isaac Newton having observed that inflammable bodies had a greater refraction, in proportion to their density, than other bodies, and that the diamond resembled them in this property, was induced to conjecture that the diamond itself was of an inflammable nature. The inflammable substances which he employed were camphire, oil of turpentine, oil of olives, and amber; these he called “fat, sulphureous, unctuous “bodies;" and using the same expression respecting the diamond, he says, it is probably “an unctuous body coagulated". This remarkable conjecture of Sir Isaac Newton has been since confirmed by repeated experiments. It was found that, though the diamond was capable of resisting the effects of a violent heat when the air was carefully excluded, yet that on being exposed to the action of heat and air, it might be entirely consumed. But as the sole object of these experiments was to ascertain the inflammable nature of the diamond, no attention was paid to the products afforded by its combustion; and it still therefore remained to be determined whether the diamond was a distinct substance, or one of the known inflammable bodies. Nor was any attempt made to decide this question till M. Lavoisier, in 1772, undertook a series of experiments for this purpose. He exposed the diamond to the heat produced by a large lens, and was thus enabled to bum it in close glass vessels. He observed that the air in which the inflammation had taken place had become partly soluble in water, and precipitated from lime-water a white powder which appeared to be chalk, being soluble in acids with effervescence. As M. Lavoisier seems to have had little doubt that this precipitation was occasioned by the production of fixed air, similar to that which is afforded by calcareous substances, he might, as we know at present, have inferred that the diamond contained charcoal; but the relation between that substance and fixed air, was then too imperfectly understood to justify this conclusion. Though he observed the resemblance of charcoal to the diamond, yet he thought that nothing more could be reasonably deduced from their analogy, than that each of those substances belonged to the class of inflammable bodies. As the nature of the diamond is so extremely singular, it seemed deserving of further examination; and it will appear from the following experiments, that it consists entirely of charcoal, differing from the usual state of that substance only by its crystallized form. From the extreme hardness of the diamond, a stronger degree of heat is required to inflame it, when exposed merely to air, than can easily be applied in close vessels, except by means of a strong burning lens; but with nitre its combustion may be effected in a moderate heat. To expose it to the action of heated nitre free from extraneous matters, I procured a tube of gold, which by having one end closed might serve the purpose of a retort, a glass tube being adapted to the open end for collecting the air produced. To be certain that the gold vessel was perfectly closed, and that it did not contain any unperceived impurities which could occasion the production of fixed air, some nitre was heated in it till it had become alkaline, and afterwards dissolved out by water; but the solution was perfectly free from fixed air, as it did not affect the transparency of lime-water. When the diamond was destroyed in the gold vessel by nitre, the substance which remained precipitated lime from lime-water, and with acids afforded nitrous and fixed air; and it appeared solely to consist of nitre partly decomposed, and of aerated alkali.