, but for the making
of diamonds it is too much for us, except in a small way.
While we cannot yet use the force that builds large white diamonds we
can use the diamonds themselves. Set a number of them around a section
of an iron tube, place it against a rock, at the surface or deep down
in a mine, cause it to revolve rapidly by machinery, and it will bore
into the rock, leaving a core. Force in water, to remove the dust and
chips, and the diamond teeth will eat their way hundreds of feet in any
direction; and by examining the extracted core miners can tell what
sort of ore there is hundreds of feet in advance. Hence, they go only
where they know that value lies.
SOME CURIOUS BEHAVIORS OF ATOMS
Ultimate atoms of matter are asserted to be impenetrable. That is, if
a mass of them really touched each other, that mass would not be
condensible by any force. But atoms of matter do not touch. It is
thinkable, but not demonstrable, that condensation might go on till
there were no discernible substance left, only force.
Matter exists in three states: solid, liquid, and gas. It is thought
that all matter may be passed through the three stages--iron being
capable of being volatilized, and gases condensed to liquids and
solids--the chief difference of these states being greater or less
distance between the constituent atoms and molecules.
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