"The Diamond Maker" is a short story by

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

, first published in 1894 in the ''Pall Mall Budget''. It was included in ''

The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents ''The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents'' is a collection of fifteen fantasy and science fiction Short story, short stories written by the English author H. G. Wells between 1893 and 1895. It was first published by Methuen Publishing, Methuen ...

'', the first collection of short stories by Wells, published in 1895. In the story, a businessman hears an account from a man who has devoted years attempting to make

synthetic diamonds Synthetic may refer to: Science * Synthetic biology * Synthetic chemical or compound, produced by the process of chemical synthesis * Synthetic elements, chemical elements that are not naturally found on Earth and therefore have to be created in ...

, only to end as a desperate outcast.

Historical background

It was known since experiments of

Antoine Lavoisier Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794), When reduced without charcoal, it gave off an air which supported respiration and combustion in an enhanced way. He concluded that this was just a pure form of common air and that i ...

that diamond was a form of carbon. Wells's story appeared a few years after the claims of James Ballantyne Hannay in 1879 and

Henri Moissan Ferdinand Frédéric Henri Moissan (; 28 September 1852 – 20 February 1907) was a French chemist and pharmacist who won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in isolating fluorine from its compounds. Among his other contributions, Mo ...

in 1893, that they had made artificial diamonds. Moissan heated charcoal (a form of carbon) and iron in a furnace until the iron melted, then rapidly cooled it, claiming that the iron would generate high pressure and transform some of the charcoal into (very small) diamonds. Others tried to repeat this experiment in later years, with only a few reporting that they could reproduce the result; commercially successful production of synthetic diamonds was not achieved until the 1950s.History of Man Made Diamonds
Man Made Diamond Information, accessed 16 March 2014.

Story

The narrator is getting relief from his business life by gazing at the river from the

Thames Embankment The Thames Embankment was built as part of the London Main Drainage (1859-1875) by the Metropolitan Board of Works, a pioneering Victorian civil engineering project which housed intercept sewers, roads and underground railways and embanked the ...

near

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

(

Essex Street Essex Street is a north–south street on the Lower East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. North of Houston Street, the street becomes Avenue A, which goes north to 14th Street. South of Canal Street it becomes Rutgers Street, ...

is mentioned, and there is a view of

Waterloo Bridge Waterloo Bridge () is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at the ...

and the towers of

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

beyond). Here, someone who looks like a tramp starts a conversation with him. Despite his appearance he talks like an educated businessman. He has a bag of what appear to be uncut diamonds. One, which is as big as the tip of a thumb, he offers to sell for a hundred pounds, but the narrator is suspicious. The man tells him that he has spent years on a project to make diamonds. It was done secretly, so that others would not copy his work, and so that he could sell his diamonds without it being known that they could be produced in large quantities. After his money ran out he conducted his experiments in cheap lodgings in

Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England, in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town, close to Hampstead Heath. Kentish Town likely derives its name from Ken-ditch or Caen-ditch, meaning the "bed of a waterw ...

, and had various menial jobs. He finally succeeded when, using an idea suggested by experiments of

Gabriel Auguste Daubrée Gabriel Auguste Daubrée MIF FRS FRSE (25 June 181429 May 1896) was a French geologist, best known for applying experimental methods to structural geology. He served as the director of the École des Mines as well as the president of the Frenc ...

, he put the mixture which might produce diamonds together with dynamite in a cylinder too strong to burst. However, as he inspected the results, a neighbour in the lodgings house, thinking he was a bomb-making

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

, told him he had called the police. He abandoned the lodgings house, taking with him his diamonds; this left him in the state in which the narrator has found him: homeless and carrying diamonds which he cannot try to sell without causing suspicion. The narrator thinks the man's story might be genuine, and gives him his business card, but although he has some communication with him for a period, he does not see the man again. Reflecting later on the encounter, he wonders if the man is dead, or will perhaps re-emerge and become famous; he wonders if he missed a business opportunity.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Diamond Maker 1894 short stories Short stories by H. G. Wells

Historical background

Story

See also

References

External links