Diamond

Diamond - a special mineral: it is not only superior in value other precious stones, but also has extraordinary significance for science. In addition, this is the hardest of all known minerals.
Diamond - the hardest known mineral. In addition, he is the most refractory and heat-conductive element. Diamonds are jewelery and technical. Transparent jewelry used to make diamonds from the technical make diamond bits for drilling, details of devices.
Solid, but fragile
The Greeks named the diamond named "Adamas" which means "invincible". Indeed, the hardness of diamond makes it amazingly strong: it can not be scratched by any other mineral, and its cutting and polishing have to use another diamond. However, despite its hardness, the diamond is very fragile, and enough bounce to split it.
Where to find the diamond
Unlike most of the minerals diamond formed at great depths. Diamonds on the surface are the craters of ancient volcanoes - kimberlite pipes. Small crystals sometimes bring meteorites to the ground.
How much is a diamond
Very often confuse the uninitiated "diamond" and "brilliant." In fact, the diamond - a diamond special cut. It emphasizes the inherent internal play of light, which is due to refraction of light rays and magnified by the right cut. Price of diamonds can reach incredible heights, depending on the purity, weight, cut and color of the stone. Find a good diamond - not an easy task: to get a little gem in polkarata weight (round brilliant 5 millimeters in diameter), it is necessary to sift several tens of tons of rock.
King of gems
Extremely rare, glowing from within and extremely hard, diamond on the right is the first among the precious stones.
Diamond - the king of precious stones. Possession of diamonds for centuries been the privilege of kings and high society. Many of the famous diamonds exported from India and South Africa, to take its rightful place in the rare beauty of jewelry.
The legendary "Cullinan"
The largest diamond in history was the diamond, "Cullinan", also known as the "Star of Africa". This diamond found in one of South Africa's mines and weighed 3106.0 carats, or 650 grams, was presented in raw form to King Edward VII. He ordered the cut and facet stone in 1906. All from a giant diamond received 105 cut stones. The largest, "Cullinan I», weighing 530 carats was inserted into the scepter of the monarch.
Diamond color
Most of the diamonds are colorless, but some of them have a particular color, often invisible to the naked eye. In addition, across the yellow and brown diamonds, and more rarely pink, red, blue, green, gray and black.
Did you know that:
In the past attributed to a variety of diamond properties, such as: identify poisons to protect against plague. Napoleon ordered his sword inserted into fabulously expensive diamond "Regent", following the ancient belief that a diamond makes its bearer invincible.
Where there are diamonds
Most of the diamonds are concentrated in the Southern Hemisphere. Old diamond deposits in India are completely exhausted, and today the best stones come from South Africa and Australia. Other major suppliers of diamonds are Russia, Brazil and Venezuela.