Interesting facts about precious stones
1. Although people have long tried to create them artificially, this was only achieved in the 19th century. Exactly in 1817, the French chemist Auguste Victor Louis Verneuil was able to obtain the first ruby by fusing two smaller rubies together.
But the first commercial method for the production of synthetic rubies was developed later, in 1902 (by the same Auguste Verneuil). His method of production was called the Verneuil method. The method is based on the fact that fine aluminum powder is melted in the fire of a hydrogen-oxygen burner (both ruby and sapphire consist mainly of aluminum oxide Al2O3), after which the melted drops solidify, forming a crystal.
2. Although there are about 3,500 types of minerals in the world, only a small number have the qualities of precious stones. To be called precious, they must have certain properties such as beauty, uniqueness, rarity, and durability.
With regard to the latter property, the mineral should have a hardness of 7 to 10 Mohs scale.
Of the total number of minerals, only 70 meet all 4 criteria. Of these, 15 are the most popular, namely: diamond, sapphire, emerald, ruby, beryl, opal, jade, chrysoberyl, topaz, tourmaline, quartz, turquoise, garnet, zircon and olivine.
3. The hardest gemstone is diamond. If we talk about their hardness, they occupy the first line (10 points on the Mohs hardness scale). In addition to diamonds, 10 points were not assigned to any natural precious mineral. In second place are ruby and sapphire, which received 9 points on the Mohs scale.
4. In addition to the status of the hardest, the diamond received the status of the coldest gemstone. The fact is that it has the highest thermal conductivity among all solids (900-2300 W / (m*K)), because of which it quickly gives off heat, almost always remaining cold.
5. The most expensive gem is a red diamond. And this is despite the fact that the size of most red diamonds does not exceed half a carat. At the same time, their cost is about 1 million euros per carat. This price is due to the rarity of the mineral. Today there are no more than 30 red diamonds in the world.
6. They are divided into precious and semi-precious stones. Precious are diamond, emerald, ruby and sapphire. All other "precious stones" are semi-precious.
7. Most gemstones are minerals, but some, especially pearls and amber, are organic. That is, they are created by living organisms. By definition, a mineral must be created "inside the Earth". Therefore, pearls are not exactly a "real" gemstone. The same applies to amber, which originates in the form of tree resin. Nevertheless, for thousands of years people have considered amber a precious stone, even though it is not a mineral.
8. Gemology was first recognized as a science only in the 1930s (the science of gems, the totality of information about precious and ornamental stones). Until then, many people considered all transparent red stones to be rubies, blue ones to be sapphires, and green ones to be emeralds.
9. The ancient Egyptians were known to greatly value green gemstones such as peridots and emeralds. But not many people know about the love that Cleopatra (the last queen of Hellenistic Egypt from the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty) had for peridots. Peridots were her favorite piece of jewelry.
10. Diamond is the only gem that consists of one chemical element - carbon. Carbon atoms are separated from each other at a distance of less than 0.142 nanometer, due to which the crystal lattice formed from them makes it very durable.
For example, the same ruby consists of aluminum oxide, garnet - of silicon oxide in combination with various metals, etc.
11. The oldest drinking straw in existence, found in a Sumerian tomb dating back to 3000 BC, was a golden straw adorned with a blue lapis lazuli stone.
12. In astrology, the precious stones are closely related to various astrological signs. For example, blue sapphire is considered the main gem of Saturn; diamond is the stone of Venus, pearl is the gem of the Moon, red coral is related to Mars, etc.
13. The Greeks and Romans in ancient times believed that diamonds were the tears of the gods and they were created from fragments of twinkling stars.
14. Previously, amethyst was considered very rare and very expensive. It was until scientists discovered large deposits of these gems in Brazil. Nowadays, the status of amethyst has declined and it is considered a semi-precious stone.
15. In addition to jewelry, diamond is used in mining and oil drilling. It is also used for diamond cutting (a technological process of cutting precious and semi-precious stones to give them a certain shape), since, due to its hardness, it cannot be processed by any other material.
16. According to experts, diamonds were formed deep in the bowels of the Earth more than 3 billion years ago. Sapphires are much younger stones, formed only about 150 million years ago.
17. In 1632, by order of the descendant of Tamerlane, the padishah of the Mughal Empire Shah Jahan, the famous Taj Mahal was built. It was built in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to her fourteenth child. The walls of this mosque were decorated with 28 types of gems, which were simply stolen in 1857 during the Indian uprising.
Since prehistoric times, gemstones have been widely used as personal adornments and amulets, as well as adornments in religious and secular art and architecture in general. People of past centuries valued many precious stones, as they believed that they had magical properties and gave special protection and strength to their owners.
And today we decided to take a closer look at these minerals, which are among the most expensive materials on the planet. In this article we have collected the most interesting facts about precious stones.
