FROM SEWER GAS & WHISKY DIAMONDS! 

Alchemists have provided themselves with a good living right back to the days of ancient Egypt. Later when they started to grow into disrepute they called themselves chemists and have prospered to this day. Now the return of the alchemists. They are back and doing what they always said they could do. Converting sewer gas and whiskey into diamonds is a pretty neat trick!

Almost 90 percent of the industrial diamonds currently produced each year are synthetic, only 10 percent being mined. Most are used as abrasives for cutting tools and drills. Until now these have been created by a method introduced by General Electric years ago, which involves crushing carbon under high temperatures in a huge press. Now a new idea.

Last year Dr. James E. Butler of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington reported he had made synthetic diamonds from sewer gas. Just before that announcement Dr. Yoichi Hirose of the Nippon Institute of Technology in Saitama, Japan let it be known that he had converted saki to diamonds. Then General Electric performed the same feat with Jack Daniels whiskey. Makes one wonder if there are any teatotalers left in industry or academia.

The implications are considerable. Some scientists believe this development could equal that of converting hydrocarbons into plastics. The principle, like most important discoveries is simple. Known as "chemical vapor depositation" (CVD) the Japanese already have the lead, holding 488 of the 573 patents granted during the past five years. Just 28 were awarded in the U.S. Even American experts agree that Japan is well out in front in the C.V.D. field. The Sony Corporation now is offering tweeter loudspeakers with resonators utilizing an unusually thin diamond surface. Such diamond films are ideal for high frequency (up to 60,000 hertz) sounds -- almost double the range audible to humans. Imagine, loud speakers made of diamond saran wrap! Dogs must hear them as the magical sounds from the spheres.

Asahi Diamond Industrial Company of Japan is the world's largest manufacturer of cutting bits. Last year they started to offer ultrahard C.V.D. tools. Experts believe they are also researching diamond coatings for computer chips. Such a covering would protect silicon chips from radiation damage, one very real current vulnerability the Pentagon has been losing sleep over since their experiments in 1968 on Johnson Island, 500 miles (1100 kilometres) south of Hawaii. That's when they turned out the lights in the Sandwich Islands with their (unknown at that time) electro magnetic pulse (EMP). Subsequent research showed that nuclear radiation can "fry" the usual silicon chips used extensively by both the military and industry today. The Russians are deliberately using some old vacuum tube computers still, not because they have to, but because these machines are not subject to radiation damage.

Furthermore, diamond-covered chips dissipate heat quickly. That means chip designers can put transisters closer together for increased speed, efficiency and greater storage possibilities. One U.S. manufacturer, Menlo Park's Crystallume Company is now selling a "diamond window". It has improved transparency to X-rays over other materials and can act as a leak-proof barrier for gas under pressure. Crystallume's window is one-hundredth the width of a human hair.

The major problem today with C.V.D. technique is that they can only be applied on very hot (1,000 degrees) materials. Most bases melt at that temperature. This liability may shortly be conquered by an even newer process: "ion-beam enhanced deposition". Here accelerators blast atoms of electrically-charged carbon on to object surfaces. Heat is not involved. This method already tried on sunglasses by the Beamalloy Corporation of Dublin, Ohio greatly improved scratch resistance. Moral: There usually is a better way, even if it means turning garbage into diamonds. The new alchemists have arrived.

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