Posted on 08/18/2003 9:12:19 AM PDT by bedolido
Setback for jewel industry is good news for high-tech
Two companies are manufacturing gem-quality diamonds that may break the DeBeers cartel and set off a high-tech craze for diamond chips much heartier than silicon, reports Wired Magazine's September issue.
The diamonds are flawless and can fool even the most expert of gemologists.
The natural conditions that produce diamonds have long been understood – put pure carbon under enough heat and pressure and it will crystallize into the hardest material known. But evolutionists have suggested it would require millions of years to reproduce the precise set of circumstances. Some have suggested the earth's diamonds were produced deep in the planet's mantle some 3.3 billion years ago.
While replicating the conditions in a lab isn't easy, many have tried. Since the mid-19th century, Wired reports, dozens of these modern alchemists have been injured in accidents and explosions while attempting to manufacture diamonds. Starting in the 1950s, engineers managed to produce tiny crystals for industrial purposes – to coat saws, drill bits and grinding wheels.
"But this summer, the first wave of gem-quality manufactured diamonds began to hit the market," the magazine reports. "They are grown in a warehouse in Florida by a roomful of Russian-designed machines spitting out 3-carat roughs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A second company, in Boston, has perfected a completely different process for making near-flawless diamonds and plans to begin marketing them by year's end. This sudden arrival of mass-produced gems threatens to alter the public's perception of diamonds – and to transform the $7 billion industry. More intriguing, it opens the door to the development of diamond-based semiconductors."
Diamond is not only the hardest substance known, it also has the highest thermal conductivity.
"Today's speedy microprocessors run hot – at upwards of 200 degrees Fahrenheit," says the report. "In fact, they can't go much faster without failing. Diamond microchips, on the other hand, could handle much higher temperatures, allowing them to run at speeds that would liquefy ordinary silicon. But manufacturers have been loath even to consider using the precious material, because it has never been possible to produce large diamond wafers affordably. With the arrival of Gemesis, the Florida-based company, and Apollo Diamond, in Boston, that is changing. Both startups plan to use the diamond jewelry business to finance their attempt to reshape the semiconducting world."
The sudden appearance of multi-carat, gem-quality synthetics has sent the DeBeers diamond cartel scrambling. Several years ago, it set up what it calls the Gem Defensive Program – a campaign to warn jewelers and the public about the arrival of manufactured diamonds. At no charge, the company is supplying gem labs with sophisticated machines designed to help distinguish man-made from mined stones.
"I was in combat in Korea and 'Nam," says Gemesis founder Carter Clarke. "You better believe that I can handle the diamond business." His company has 27 diamond-making machines up and running – with 250 planned – at his factory outside Sarasota, Fla.
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No rusty aluminum is sapphire & ruby.
Post 30 says they're only doing yellow and blue so far. That doesn't mean they couldn't make top-quality white diamonds, of course ... maybe they can't, or maybe they're not ready for that market yet.
Actually, part of my original comment mysteriously disappeared.
Did you know that the tip of the Washington Monument is a 100-Oz aluminum pyramid? Back in the 19th century, aluminum was extremely rare, as they hadn't yet discovered the modern electrical smelting techniques that make it a disposable metal.
They already do. I've seen Russian synthetics in red, blue, green, white and other colors/shades. In addition the colors of certain natural diamonds can be altered by zapping them with nuclear radiation or high pressure-high temperature (HPHT) techniques...that's where all those colored diamonds they sell on the shopping TV channels come from. A good number of "brownies" that range from dark brown to light as well as into the "fancy" champagne, yellow and orange colors occur naturally in Australia. They're marketed in the U.S. by Argylle Diamonds.
Most "black" diamonds which are so popular now are nuked. Beautiful pink and red diamonds are found naturally in Australia and elsewhere, and are among the earth's rarest and most valuable treasures.
I've been looking for proof that De Beers is complicit in this illegal trade for several years now. If you have it, please post it.
Why not just buy paste? It comes in pretty colors and is cheap.
I was often perplexed by the copper heat shields found behind the wood burning stoves in many of the old mountain cabins in the Rockies. Why not Al, I wondered. Only recently did I learn that Copper used to cheaper than Al.
So you have decided that the old man in NY (who has been granted bail) is part of "organized crime all over the world." You never miss an opportunity assign collective blame.
Wrong. Diamonds are a girl's best friend. :)
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