Super flawless diamonds now made by machines

Worldnetdaily ^ | 08/18/03 | Staff Writer

[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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[null and void]

Diamonds are death. ~ Bernard Marx

Wrong. Diamonds are a girl's best friend. :) ~ veronica

Since you've clearly never been a guy going through a divorce you fail to appreciate a girl's best friend (or favorite hobby) is causing a slow painful death...

[NYFriend]

Good point, maybe like a composite using molten diamond instead of resin, or a laminate, like you suggested. I have a Seiko watch with a Saphelex(sp) crystal. It's synthetic saphire over plastic (I think). The theory is that the saphire protects from scratches and the plastic makes it shatter resistant.

[Sloth]

This is why I stopped reading WND.

What, do you deny that diamonds have evolved? Their hardness genes give them good survival characteristics so they can hook up with diamonds of the opposite gender and reproduce.

[AdamSelene235]

I wonder if the moralistic hippies of the liberal left will tell women to stop wanting diamonds? After all, it is the hippy chicks who are against fur coats for women. If it is wrong to kill a mink for a fur coat, is it OK for 15 year old kids in Africa to kill each other in a rebel diamond mine region, for the diamonds?

The moralistic hippies happily falsified DDT data resulting in the death of 10's of millions of Africans. I doubt diamonds will bother them.

[Bernard Marx]

Technology puts an end to the endless african civil wars and cruelty... film at 11.

The leaders of these companies are liable to get a bullet to the brain if they don't watch out.

This is nonsense. Check out the link in my #66 above.

[null and void]

If you smack a diamond ring wrong, it will shatter. Not what you want from armor. You'd rather it be soft but not brittle. They won't make good kinetic energy projectiles, because they'd fragment on impact (if they could survive being accelerated) without penetrating. They would also wear the barrel down.

Ah, but a matrix of diamond in steel will grind a penetrator to powder before it gets all the way through. Diamond provides the hardness, the steel provides the toughness, and keeps the grit in contact with the projectile...

[Chewbacca]

"Diamonds: aluminum for the 21st Century?"

Transparent aluminum. - Star Trek

[Bernard Marx]

I didn't say what you say I said. "Diamonds are Death" was posted by wtc911 in #46.

[BraveMan]

Heads-up . . .

[veronica]

Thanks for the correction. :)

[wtc911]

Take a deep breath and re-read my post. I said that DeBeers maintains control over diamond value by controlling the tap. I said that the media (NYT) is complicit in DeBeers maintaining control by repeatedly calling for governmental controls over what they have decided is the illegal trade. Then I said that they define illegal as any selling going on outside the SA/Amsterdam/Israel/47thSt cartel. You think I'm wrong? Show me where please.

[lafroste]

Wow. That IS amazing. I had no idea diamond conducted heat so well.

[BraveMan]

I can't wait for a 100 or 200 gigahertz machine.

There's a joke about patience in there somewhere . . .

[null and void]

Higher [thermal conductivity] than gold? Surprising if true, which I doubt.

Yep, much higher than gold. And if you make diamond out of all C12 isotopes it gets even better.

for electron pushers this is a VERY BIG DEAL.

If we could just dope it for N-type, we'd be all set!

[e_engineer]

It's ironic to see your comment on this (diamond related) thread, because methane can be converted into long chain hydrocarbons using high pressure and temperature in the same way that diamonds are made.

Of course you are correct that it's much cheaper to pump it from the ground.

[etcetera]

"You must have read "Blood Diamonds."

No, I have not, but thanks for the tip, went to Amazon.com and found the book. 8-)

[wtc911]

The NYT sunday mag's cover story is an expose on Victor Bout, who is touted wide and far as the world's largest arms trafficker. His preferred method of payment for the tools of death? A sack full of cash or a sock full of diamonds.

You seem to have a dog in this fight Bernie.

[Fishing-guy]

I guess now is not the time to invest in diamonds.

[Bernard Marx]

Gadzooks! You've found DeBeers guilty of...marketing!! How diabolical. Off with their heads! Following your logic, Ford is largely responsible for all the problems associated with automobiles around the world.

As a jeweler and gem-cutter I'm pretty familiar with the history and marketing strategies of DeBeers. Did you know that the Soviet Union marketed its gem diamonds through DeBeers all during the Cold War?

I don't particularly like diamonds and prefer to cut and sell colored gems that thrive in a true free market. I wouldn't care if DeBeers ceased to exist tomorrow morning but I have a problem with the massive amount of mythology associated with the company. The truth is out there, as the TV show says, and it's easily available to anyone who can still read books and do rigorous on-line research. It's a bit difficult to separate the truth from the anti-diamond (read anti-capitalist) propaganda these days, however.

As a cartel I'm much more worried about OPEC than DeBeers. Diamonds are optional, like AIDS. Oil isn't.

I adorn my lady with alexandrites, rare garnets like malaia, Tsavorite, mint grossular, demantoid, chrome pyrope and gorgeous spessartites; lovely white stones like colorless sapphire and a range of other colored beauties much rarer than diamonds.

You mention diamonds losing value the minute you buy them. Have you ever bought a new car and tried to sell it back to the dealership after driving it around the block? I'm amazed that people posting on Free Republic don't seem to understand that businesspeople -- even jewelers -- have to make a profit on what they sell.