"A carbon not merely chemically pure but _absolutely_ pure, in highly compressed disks, is packed in the furnace, the furnace placed within the cube, the ends of the two-inch opening in the furnace being blocked to prevent expansion, the cube closed, the bolts fastened, and heat applied, for several minutes--a heat, gentlemen, of five thousand two hundred and eighty degrees Fahrenheit.

The heat of the sun is only about ten thousand degrees.

And then the pressure of about seven thousand tons to the square inch is added by means of the two guns.

In other words, gentlemen, pure carbon, vaporized, is caught between two projectiles which enter the cube simultaneously from opposite sides, being fired by electricity.

The impact is so terrific that what had been two feet of compressed carbon is instantly condensed into an irregular disk, one inch or an inch and a half thick.