Fashion -> The Most Expensive Substances in the World -> Diamonds

The price of diamonds is of 55 000 dollars per gram. The colorless stone can cost more than 11 thousand dollars per carat, but colored diamonds are worth more.

Why do we need diamonds?

The natural diamonds are most often used in the jewelry industry. Also, the extreme hardness of diamonds finds its application in industry: it is used to make knives, drills, cutters, and similar products.

The Description of the diamond

A diamond (from the French brillant ) was given a special form of the so-called brilliant cut , as revealing the natural luster of the stone. A diamond is a stone of some geometric shapes, made of a transparent variety of solid diamond. With its ability to refract light twice, that is, twice it has a total internal reflection, the diamond has a strong sparkling shine thanks to the dispersion of the game created by a stone. A diamond is also characteristic of two, three or multiple passages of the light beam inside the stone. Large diamonds, the reduction in jewel alone, without other stones is called "Solitaire."

History of Diamonds

The first diamond was produced by Louis de Berkemom in 1454. Louis de Berk was a court jeweler to the Duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold, and the warlike duke saw diamonds, then used them on the battlefield. Charles ordered to decorate their armor with diamonds to shine and let the precious stones dazzle to horrify the enemies. Charles the Bold began to follow and then other crowned warriors. The first written evidence of diamond cutting was dated in the 1463 year. The history is littered with well-known and world famous diamonds. The history of diamonds is closely linked with the history of diamonds. The news of who, where and when he found the world's first diamond was hidden in the darkness of the millennium. However, all researchers agree that for many centuries the "monopolist" in the diamond was India. It is the Indian master who first learned how to cut diamonds, turning them into diamonds. From the outset, the most beautiful stones carried a religious principle. Diamonds were decorated with statues of Hindu gods, mysterious, stocks of precious stones owned by priests. And diamonds to Europe fell through a few travelers and merchants who won the hard way. But these diamonds were not like today. At best, the masters could polish the diamond in the natural faces. The stone caused a mystical horror of its hardness, but it was very rare and valued less than, say, ruby or sapphire. Perhaps this is because the great game diamonds have not been seen. India was the world's only source of diamonds until the 18th century. Then the "diamond rush" began to encompass other countries and continents. In 1725 the diamond deposit was found in Brazil, and more than a century the center of the world diamond production has shifted to South America. Brazilian deposits found a Catholic priest, who lived long before that in India, and therefore had an idea of the diamonds. And in 1869, a South African farmer innocently came into the tavern with a bottle of "flints”. Were "silicon" "diamonds? Thus began a new era of the diamond. And now the word" diamond "and" brilliant "in the world associated with the" De Beers ", which" grew "it is on South African mines. But the diamond deposits, the famous kimberlite pipes, unfortunately, are not inexhaustible. The richest one time, the legendary Golconda mines in India, as mentioned in the fairy tales "Thousand and One Nights," ran out with the time. The diamond mining in India is negligible today. The Brazilian mines are two hundred years old, South Africa’s a hundred and fifty. By the mid-twentieth century, the sphere of influence in the diamond industry was almost completely divided. And Russia is a major diamond power. Few and not the best quality for Ural diamonds were not enough. However, the Soviet geologists attempted to find large deposits in Yakutia. The natural conditions of the harsh edge of the well allow such a possibility. The first diamond was found in 1949 in the river basin Viluy. And in August 1954 in Leningrad the geologist Larissa Popugaeva bravely traveled to the remote taiga with only one worker in the Soviet Union and opened its first primary diamond deposits : the famous kimberlite pipe "Summer Lightning". A total of forty years of geological investigations in Yakutia revealed more than 800 kimberlite pipes! A "Summer Lightning", by the way is still not developed and it is in reserve. Thus the story of diamonds goes back thousands of years. But there are still diamonds who have attracted millions of people with their magical beauty.

The cost of a diamond depends on five components: form, mass, color, defects and geometry and the number of forms determined by the shape of a diamond. So, diamonds weighing 3.15 carats and 2.25 carats may have one value (19 thousand dollars), if the first more defective and inferior to the second in color. A faceted stone weighing 1 carat (1.5 grams) has a higher category of color and clarity - 1 / 1 - also called the stone of pure water. It is worth the treasure of about 12 thousand dollars and does not occur too often. The lowest grade is highly colored and with inclusions and draws about $ 200.

Others The Most Expensive Substances in the World .

Maps of Diamonds