Article ID: CBB185674049

What is the “True” Nature of Diamond? (2016)

unapi

After having been forgotten for more than half a century, the question of the nature of diamond was again raised by Jean d’ Arcet before the Académie des sciences in the 1770s. Quite surprisingly, diamond totally disappeared when heated to very high temperatures and, in order to understand this fascinating behaviour, Parisian chemists enthusiastically performed experiments from 1771 to 1773. They first used porcelain furnaces and then Tschirnhaus’ lens, an unsurpassed masterpiece constructed in Germany in approximately 1700. The analysis of handwritten laboratory notebooks, describing in detail the experiments conducted with this burning lens, reveals a little known close collaboration between Pierre-Joseph Macquer and Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier. The successive steps of their research led to the revelation of the “true” nature of diamond, since it burned in air like common charcoal, releasing a gas that precipitated lime water. Contrary to the legend, Trudaine’s lens shed no additional light on the experimental evidence produced by the preceding collaborative academic research.

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Authors & Contributors
Beretta, Marco
Lehman, Christine
Holmes, Frederic Lawrence
Ferraz, Marcia H. M.
Simon, Jonathan
Seligardi, Raffaella
Concepts
Chemistry
Experiments and experimentation
Scientific apparatus and instruments
Experimental method
Phlogiston
Pharmacy
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
Early modern
Enlightenment
20th century
Places
France
Italy
Paris (France)
Institutions
Académie des Sciences, Paris
Académie Royale des Sciences (France)
Accademia nazionale di scienze, lettere e arti (Italy)
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