The diamond and its history
Diamond is the purest of natural materials.
The word diamond derives from the Latin diamas, "indomitable magnet" , from adamasto and greek adamas : indomitable, inflexible, unwavering .
The term initially describes an indomitable state of mind before designating the hardest metals with which the weapons and instruments of the gods are forged.
Historically, the first diamonds were mined 3,000 years ago in India.
It is represented as the " fruit of the stars " or coming from sacred sources.
Buddhist texts reveal all its symbolism, Diamond Sutra, the truth, eternal.
In Egypt, Greece and in ancient Rome it is considered chemically indestructible and represents the “tears of God”.
It is worn as an amulet which is attributed the virtue of being an anti-poison, diamond powder is used in glyptic (the art of engraving stone).
At Middle Ages and to the Renaissance, it is worn on top of crowns or as a pendant.
The diamond trade is redeveloping from the Great discoveries who see the opening of the road to india by Europeans, the maritime republics gradually taking over spice monopoly and the Republic of Venice becoming the center of diamond trade in the West.
In 1866, at Hopetown, 120 kilometres south of Kimberley (South Africa), the EUREKA diamond was discovered. This region with its many diamond mines, gave birth to 1888 to the De Beers, the world's largest diamond company.
We have to wait until the middle of the 20th century so that chemists succeed in manufacturing it. Since then, the diamond has become an industrial material whose annual production now reaches 570 million carats, or 114 tons (2007 figures)
In 1932, Gabrielle Chanel launches the “Diamond Jewelry” collection in which it does away with the set, the diamonds being mounted on platinum.
She was the first to desacralize the diamond by imagining costume jewelry (fake jewelry mixed with real ones)
In September 2012, Russia makes public the existence of an unparalleled diamond deposit, kept secret for 40 years.
Located at Popigaï, it was discovered at the beginning of the years 1970 in an uninhabited area of the Eastern Siberia. It is said to be 110 times larger than the world's diamond reserves.
Natural diamonds
Geologically, the diamonds come from the depths of the earth.
About 3 billion years ago, under the effect of extreme temperatures and colossal pressures, the liquid carbon located under the Earth's mantle at a depth of 200 km was transformed, crystallized and formed the diamonds raw.
They take 1 to 3.3 billion years to grow (25 to 75% of the age of the Earth). Diamonds are brought to the surface by magma from deep volcanic eruptions which cools to form a volcanic rock containing the diamonds,
Diamond is the most valuable natural material hard (with a maximum index of 10 on the Mohs scale) and it has a very high thermal conductivity.
Its properties mean that diamond finds numerous applications in industry as cutting and machining tools, in science as scalpels or diamond anvils and in jewelry for its optical properties.