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Diamonds Throughout History
by Adala Fendham
http://www.autodiamonds.com
Diamonds have been around for ages. The youngest
examples of this gem are about a billion years old!
That's because diamonds are produced when carbon is
compressed under the earth for a long time, under
intense pressure and in high heat. In fact, it takes
a temperature of about two thousand degrees Fahrenheit
to produce a sparkler!
So how do these precious gems make their way into our
hands? They travel ninety miles up from the earth's depths
by riding on a current of volcanic magma. (The rarity of
diamonds has something to do with the fact that volcanoes
so deep down are few and far between.) Like coal, diamonds
are a product of the element carbon. It is because of the
extreme temperatures and pressures that carbon is turned
into diamonds.
Diamond gathering by humans started early in our history
and hundreds of years before Christ diamonds were being
used as decoration in India. Besides being beautiful,
diamonds are also amazingly hard - the name comes from the
Greek meaning impossible to tame - and some cultures have
made more use of this second characteristic. The Ancient
Chinese, for example, used diamonds to engrave and drill
jade, a gem they found far more attractive than diamond.
For almost a thousand years up to the middle ages in
Europe, diamonds were completely out of fashion. This was
due to the combined effects of trade restrictions between
Europe and diamond-rich India, and the association of
diamonds with non-Christian amulets that meant diamonds had
bad associations in Christian Europe.
But when trade increased in the 14th century, the
popularity of diamonds began to rise. Rather than leaving
the diamonds "raw," as Indians did, the Europeans
preferred to cut their stones. They made them over into
various shapes, and the cuts gave off an increased
sparkle.
Diamond cutting as an art form is meant to enhance the
natural beauty of the gem by allowing it to shine at its
most brilliant. Diamond experts call the glint of a finely
cut diamond its "fire." There are a number of types of
cuts, including point, rose, table, and Mazarin. And
diamond cutting is not just an art, it is also a science.
One of the world's most beautiful cutting patterns was the
invention of a German mathematician named Marcel Tolkowsky.
He used numerical calculations to figure out which shape
would show off a diamond in the best possible way.
Diamonds are rare, which has a lot to do with how highly
prized they are. This reputation also owes, however, to
the words of Louis the ninth. This French king decreed
that diamonds were fit only for kings. In fact, he
implemented a law that prohibited commoners from owning
diamonds!
Diamonds are often found in river beds, but in 1870 the
world discovered that they could also be found through
the mining process. In that year, a diamond turned up in
South Africa, miles from any river bed. Since then,
South Africa has been a diamond hot-spot.
The unit used to measure diamonds is the carats, which
denotes weight. One ounce is equal to one hundred and
forty-seven carats. But diamonds are precious when they
are as small as a single carat, and some are measured in
units below a carat, called a "point." Fifty points is
the equivalent of a half-carat.
Nowadays, scientists have figured out how to make diamonds
artificially, but it's still difficult to produce these
gems. Though these man-made versions are somewhat cheaper
than the real deal, they do not have the cachet of the
billion-year-old diamonds mined from the depths of the
earth.
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