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If any one should say--I am going to produce a fire of enormous power, without employing any substance but water, he would run the risk of being considered a fool, since fire and water have always been considered the antipodes of one another. Even modifying the announcement, and saying--I am about to produce an intense fire by means of elements derived exclusively from water, hardly makes the proposition appear more plausible, yet nothing can be more rigorously exact.
Water is composed of two bodies, which, in the present state of knowledge, are considered simple: they are two gases--one called oxygen, the other hydrogen. If a mixture of these two gases is made, and if to this mixture an ignited body is applied, the two gases combine and form water; but at the same time there is a production of vivid light, and a development of a great quantity of heat. These two effects attain their maximum when the mixture is formed of one volume of oxygen and two of hydrogen.
If, instead of forming the mixture immediately, we arrange so that the two gases arrive separately, in two uniform and continuous streams, at an orifice of small diameter, and if an ignited body is applied to this orifice of small diameter, and if an ignited body is applied to this orifice where the gases meet and combine, the mixture takes fire. As the two gases are constantly renewed at the orifice, the combustion is not interrupted; and a jet of fame is attained analogous to that of a gas-burner. It gives out little light, but develops an exceedingly elevated temperature. The contrivance is called the oxyhydrogen blowpipe, and is in common use among chemists and others.
By aid of this instrument M. Gaudin melted silica and alumina, and artificially reproduced the corundum.
The corundum, as we have seen, is crystallized alumina. To obtain it M. Gaudin heated ammonia alum and potash alum: the enormous heat developed by his apparatus volatilized the potash, and the alumina crystallized. Rubies were obtained in this manner; and M. Dufrenoy has found in these productions the rhombohedral form, and the triple cleavage proper to the corundum. Finally, M. Malaguti has established, by the analysis of these crystals, that they contain 97 to 100 parts of alumina, and 2 of silicate of lime; a composition analogous to that of the ruby.
The experiments of M. Gaudin date back to 1837; this date gives the priority to this ingenious physicist for the artificial production of the corundum.
It should nevertheless be noted that more than ten years before the work of M. Gaudin, a man who has left a deep impress on science, Berthier, basing his experiments upon chemical proportions, reproduced a great number of minerals, such as peridote, pyroxene, &c., by bringing their elements together at a high temperature. |
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Precious Stones Guide Vol 2
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