The Good Side of Diamonds
by
Dustin Edwards
http://www.emporia.edu/earthsci/amber/go336/edwards
Table of contents
http://www.bluenile.com/diamonds.asp?track=55
Image taken from: Blue Nile, Education,
Guidance Diamonds and Fine Jewelry.
This webpage project was created for a mineralogy course in November 2003 at Emporia State University. The assignment was to learn webpage creation, as well as present a summary of our knowledge regarding the positives aspects of diamonds. For negatives go to my partners Chris Dobbs webpage The Bad Side of Diamonds.
Two important characteristics of diamonds are occurrences and mode of formation. Diamonds have been discovered in many different countries around the world, but to be profitably mined there are only a few countries that have large enough quantities of diamonds. In several countries in Africa and North America , as well as China, Venezuela, Australia, India, and Siberia , diamonds have been found in situ. Diamonds in these places are usually found near or in alluvial deposits. It is there because of its inert chemical nature. Diamonds have a high specific gravity and are the hardest mineral in the world (Klein, 2002, p.348).
When thinking about the occurrences of diamonds, one should think about where they where first discovered. This was in India. The next place that they were found was in Brazil in 1729, then in South Africa in 1867 and in Pike County Arkansas in 1906 (Chesterman, 2002, p. 354).
The first diamonds found were discovered in stream gravels in southern and central India. It is estimated that 12 million carats were produced from this area. India has really fallen off in the production of diamonds. They only produce a few hundred carats a year now. The largest diamond producers listed for 1995 with natural rough diamond production recorded in millions of carats were: Australia 40.8, Zaire 20, Botswana 16.8, Russia 12.5, South Africa 9.1, Angola 1.9, Namibia 1.3 (Klein, 2002, p. 349).
Here are very interesting facts about diamonds. They are made of carbon and are the oldest gemstones in creation at over 100 million years. Diamond is 57 times harder than either ruby or sapphire. The word diamond is derived from the Greek adams or unconquerable. A majority of the diamonds that are mined are used in cutting and grinding . They are formed very deep within the Earth’s crust and come to the surface over long periods of time. Most diamonds are found in kimberlite, which is volcanic rock. Stones are also recovered from mines, rivers and beaches. No diamonds have come to the surface within the past 40 million years. Price of the diamond is determined by the weight, which is measured in carats. Small industrial diamonds cost under 1 US dollar per carat, but gem-quality stones cost 1000 US dollars per carat (Hart, 2002, p. 7, 8).
http://www.diamondcuttersintl.com/diamond_education/
photogallery/shapes/shapes.html
Image taken from:
The Diamond Guy
Diamond Cutters International Guidance
Diamonds have many positives. Many people may think the only purpose of diamond is as some type of jewelry, but this is simply not the case. In fact, diamonds have many uses other than ornamental, from dental equipment to super computers. New uses for diamonds continue to be found and synthesizing diamonds is routine now.
When one looks at a diamond you see a beautiful mineral that looks fragile, but that isn’t the case. It is the hardest mineral, so that makes it a prime candidate to be used in cutting and grinding different types of materials. It is used to polish and grind gemstones, ceramics, metals, concrete, eyeglasses, and computer chips. Diamonds growing specialty includes blades, some used in critical surgery, specialty windows, and heat spreaders. Diamonds have been used on the tips of phonograph needles to reproduce music for 50 years (American Museum of Natural History).
Diamond has three primary roles in industry: cutting tools, abrasive, polisher. Diamonds resistance to wear enables it to cut reproducibly time after time, a requirement of automated production. Diamond machining tools for turning, milling, and machining a wide variety of plastics, glasses, metals, shaping products such as the drums for copying machines, polygon mirrors in laser printers, and aluminum alloy pistons in automobile engines (American Museum of Natural History).
Single cutter experiments have been performed to investigate the cutting and wear of thermally stable diamond during rock cutting(Cooper 1994). The diamond is used to cut in dental applications. The diamond dental bur was first manufactured in 1897 but it did not appear in abundance until 1932. At that time, a German industrialist developed a method for bonding small diamond pieces onto stainless steel. The bur did not become widely accepted until the introduction of the high speed drill in 1957. The diamond chips are bonded to a stainless steel tip that is inserted into the drill. Diamond burs are allegedly more resistant to wear and last longer. The burs must be thoroughly cleaned and sterilized between use and a disposable bur has been developed (Siegel 1998).
As you can see diamonds are used in all types of applications from super computers to dental equipment. They are used all over the world by every type of people. If we didn't have diamonds we wouldn't be able to do some of the high tech cutting, grinding and polishing that are being done today. Diamonds are very hard to come by, and that is one of the things that make them so expensive especially large gem quality diamonds.
Chesterman, C. 1979. National audubon society field guide to rocks and minerals. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 850pp.
Cooper, G. 1994. Journal Of Energy Resources Technology. American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Harlow, ?. 1998. The Nature of Diamonds . American Museum of Natural History
Hart, Mathew. 2002. Geographical 32 pp
Klein, C. 2002. The 22nd edition of the manual of mineral science. John Wiley& Sons, Inc, NY, 641pp.
Siegel, C. 1998. Journal of the American Dental Association.
For more information email
Dustin Edwards. Return to the GO 336 Student WebPages.