Post by fatrichie on Apr 1, 2007 11:44:58 GMT -5
Making Diamonds at Home
A fascinating event happened while I was attending the Tucson Show last
year. I was in the room of Brazilian mineral dealer Joaquin Stick, and
noticed a number of very nice, rather large diamond crystals for sale. When
I inquired about them, I was introduced to an elderly gentleman sitting in
the corner. This fascinating man was Professor Ilmeno Rutille, originally a
professor of chemistry at the University of Bologna in Italy, but who had
spent most of his professional career working for
General Electric in their Diamond Synthesis Lab.
Professor Rutille had synthesized all the diamond
specimens I had seen in a laboratory in his home!
I spent a very pleasant hour talking to this amazing man, and when I
returned home, I began an e-mail
correspondence with him. I'm afraid I pestered him for several months with
questions about how these diamond crystals were grown, and finally he
relented, saying he would show me the process if I would travel to his home
laboratory in the mountains near Oakley, Kansas.
It was late May when I arrived at Professor Rutille's
home, and after introducing me to his wife, he took me to his laboratory
located behind his garage. I was
immediately struck by the lack of large, sophisticated equipment one would
expect to find in a lab capable of synthesizing diamonds.
I asked Prof. Rutille where he made his diamonds, as
there was not a single piece of technical equipment in the place. "That is
exactly why I asked you here," he replied, "Please sit down," and he pointed
to two chairs against the wall. We sat down, and he handed me some papers.
"It's all explained here," he said. While I looked at the papers, Prof.
Rutille told a fascinating story.
The early attempts to synthesize diamonds at the GE
labs were a trial and error effort that did not succeed until it was
discovered that with existing equipment, a catalyst was necessary to lower
the temperature and pressure at which diamonds form. An amino acid present
in animal muscle and fat tissue turned out to be the key. This was
discovered when a technician was preparing samples to go into the furnace
while eating a ham sandwich. A bit of
ham contaminated the sample, but the technician went ahead with the test.
The result was a diamond(small and very poor quality)but a diamond. This
amino acid catalyst has been kept a secret ever since.
The story continues in the 1980s when Prof. Rutille
began work on a project in the GE Synthetic Stones Lab to synthesize elbaite
tourmaline. The scientists added various metals to the chemical structure to
change the color of the crystals. The results were disappointing, except in
the case of copper. Adding copper produced a cuprian elbaite of a beautiful,
but rather unbelievable, teal blue color. Further research was discontinued
because his superiors felt that gems cut from this material looked fake.
Prof. Rutille kept about half of the few hundred crystals produced, sending
the rest to a mineral dealer friend in Paraiba, Brazil.
Prof. Rutille wondered if copper might also produce a blue color in
diamonds, and began a series of tests. The attempt to produce blue diamonds
failed, but he found that the copper even more drastically reduced the
temperature and pressure necessary to produce a diamond. In fact, a pressure
of 650 pounds per square inch and a temperature of 112 degrees Fahrenheit
were all that was necessary. This could be produced in a home laboratory!
Prof. Rutille began to produce his own diamonds in his home lab, and those
were the crystals I saw in Tucson.
Prof. Rutille assured me that he would have grown rich selling diamond and
never would have told me the details of how these diamonds were made if he
had not been threatened by agents from GE and the De Beers Corporation a few
weeks before my visit. He was so angry with his former employer that he
asked me to publish his findings so that people everywhere could reproduce
his results. I agreed, and below are
instructions for synthesizing diamonds in your home or garage!
Preparing the Sample
copper pipe (the pipe and end caps are available at any home improvement
center). Into the open end of the pipe, place 1.75 grams of the lunchmeat.
This will provide the amino acid catalyst. Using a hammer or other tool,
crumble the charcoal briquette into pieces small enough to fit into the
copper pipe. Add exactly 4.2 grams of charcoal briquette, packing lightly
with your finger (Photo 2). Note: DO NOT use briquettes with lighter fluid
in them as this will contaminate the sample and cause a risk of fire or
explosion! Add another 1.75 grams of
lunchmeat on top of the packed charcoal briquette. Place the other end cap
on the open end of the copper pipe, creating an enclosed container. Cut two
round pieces of masking tape to fit the ends of the end caps, and place one
piece of tape on each end cap (this will insulate the copper container from
the jaws of the vice) (Photo 3).
Creating the Diamond
Note: Gloves and safety glasses should be worn during this step of the
procedure! Place the copper container in the jaws of a large, heavy duty
vice, one end cap against each jaw of the vice, and tighten enough to hold
the container in place (Photo 4). Lay an accurate ruler across the top of
the vice. It is necessary to close the vice one eighth of an inch to produce
the necessary pressure. First, the container must be heated. Using the blow
dryer on "high" setting, heat the container for a minimum of two minutes.
Now, while continuing to heat the container, begin to close the vice,
slowly. Some effort will be required, but continue closing the vice until
you have collapsed the container one eighth of an inch. Continue to heat the
container with the blow dryer for a minimum of four more minutes. Don't be
surprised if you feel yourself getting hungry;it does smell like barbeque!
After four minutes, the blow dryer may be turned off. Allow the container to
cool for 30 minutes. Using a hacksaw,cut the container in half and remove
your diamond!
I know this leaves one question: What type of lunch-meat to use? I have
experimented with several types, and I achieved my best results using pure
baloney.
Original Editor's note: If you are excited by the
potential that the above article details, I recommend that you reevaluate
the article. It is April 1, after all.
Kudos to Lawrence Ball from the "Rockhounds List" for this one!!
A fascinating event happened while I was attending the Tucson Show last
year. I was in the room of Brazilian mineral dealer Joaquin Stick, and
noticed a number of very nice, rather large diamond crystals for sale. When
I inquired about them, I was introduced to an elderly gentleman sitting in
the corner. This fascinating man was Professor Ilmeno Rutille, originally a
professor of chemistry at the University of Bologna in Italy, but who had
spent most of his professional career working for
General Electric in their Diamond Synthesis Lab.
Professor Rutille had synthesized all the diamond
specimens I had seen in a laboratory in his home!
I spent a very pleasant hour talking to this amazing man, and when I
returned home, I began an e-mail
correspondence with him. I'm afraid I pestered him for several months with
questions about how these diamond crystals were grown, and finally he
relented, saying he would show me the process if I would travel to his home
laboratory in the mountains near Oakley, Kansas.
It was late May when I arrived at Professor Rutille's
home, and after introducing me to his wife, he took me to his laboratory
located behind his garage. I was
immediately struck by the lack of large, sophisticated equipment one would
expect to find in a lab capable of synthesizing diamonds.
I asked Prof. Rutille where he made his diamonds, as
there was not a single piece of technical equipment in the place. "That is
exactly why I asked you here," he replied, "Please sit down," and he pointed
to two chairs against the wall. We sat down, and he handed me some papers.
"It's all explained here," he said. While I looked at the papers, Prof.
Rutille told a fascinating story.
The early attempts to synthesize diamonds at the GE
labs were a trial and error effort that did not succeed until it was
discovered that with existing equipment, a catalyst was necessary to lower
the temperature and pressure at which diamonds form. An amino acid present
in animal muscle and fat tissue turned out to be the key. This was
discovered when a technician was preparing samples to go into the furnace
while eating a ham sandwich. A bit of
ham contaminated the sample, but the technician went ahead with the test.
The result was a diamond(small and very poor quality)but a diamond. This
amino acid catalyst has been kept a secret ever since.
The story continues in the 1980s when Prof. Rutille
began work on a project in the GE Synthetic Stones Lab to synthesize elbaite
tourmaline. The scientists added various metals to the chemical structure to
change the color of the crystals. The results were disappointing, except in
the case of copper. Adding copper produced a cuprian elbaite of a beautiful,
but rather unbelievable, teal blue color. Further research was discontinued
because his superiors felt that gems cut from this material looked fake.
Prof. Rutille kept about half of the few hundred crystals produced, sending
the rest to a mineral dealer friend in Paraiba, Brazil.
Prof. Rutille wondered if copper might also produce a blue color in
diamonds, and began a series of tests. The attempt to produce blue diamonds
failed, but he found that the copper even more drastically reduced the
temperature and pressure necessary to produce a diamond. In fact, a pressure
of 650 pounds per square inch and a temperature of 112 degrees Fahrenheit
were all that was necessary. This could be produced in a home laboratory!
Prof. Rutille began to produce his own diamonds in his home lab, and those
were the crystals I saw in Tucson.
Prof. Rutille assured me that he would have grown rich selling diamond and
never would have told me the details of how these diamonds were made if he
had not been threatened by agents from GE and the De Beers Corporation a few
weeks before my visit. He was so angry with his former employer that he
asked me to publish his findings so that people everywhere could reproduce
his results. I agreed, and below are
instructions for synthesizing diamonds in your home or garage!
Preparing the Sample
copper pipe (the pipe and end caps are available at any home improvement
center). Into the open end of the pipe, place 1.75 grams of the lunchmeat.
This will provide the amino acid catalyst. Using a hammer or other tool,
crumble the charcoal briquette into pieces small enough to fit into the
copper pipe. Add exactly 4.2 grams of charcoal briquette, packing lightly
with your finger (Photo 2). Note: DO NOT use briquettes with lighter fluid
in them as this will contaminate the sample and cause a risk of fire or
explosion! Add another 1.75 grams of
lunchmeat on top of the packed charcoal briquette. Place the other end cap
on the open end of the copper pipe, creating an enclosed container. Cut two
round pieces of masking tape to fit the ends of the end caps, and place one
piece of tape on each end cap (this will insulate the copper container from
the jaws of the vice) (Photo 3).
Creating the Diamond
Note: Gloves and safety glasses should be worn during this step of the
procedure! Place the copper container in the jaws of a large, heavy duty
vice, one end cap against each jaw of the vice, and tighten enough to hold
the container in place (Photo 4). Lay an accurate ruler across the top of
the vice. It is necessary to close the vice one eighth of an inch to produce
the necessary pressure. First, the container must be heated. Using the blow
dryer on "high" setting, heat the container for a minimum of two minutes.
Now, while continuing to heat the container, begin to close the vice,
slowly. Some effort will be required, but continue closing the vice until
you have collapsed the container one eighth of an inch. Continue to heat the
container with the blow dryer for a minimum of four more minutes. Don't be
surprised if you feel yourself getting hungry;it does smell like barbeque!
After four minutes, the blow dryer may be turned off. Allow the container to
cool for 30 minutes. Using a hacksaw,cut the container in half and remove
your diamond!
I know this leaves one question: What type of lunch-meat to use? I have
experimented with several types, and I achieved my best results using pure
baloney.
Original Editor's note: If you are excited by the
potential that the above article details, I recommend that you reevaluate
the article. It is April 1, after all.
Kudos to Lawrence Ball from the "Rockhounds List" for this one!!