In the rubric Aromatherapy: aromatic sachets
The word "diamond" is of French origin and means "brilliant". In jewelery this beautiful word called faceted and polished diamonds. Valueddiamonds unusually high due to their hardness, transparency, the ability to sparkle, refracting light rays.
This amazing mineral known to people about five thousand years, talking aboutHistory of Diamonds it is impossible not to mention the word "most" - the hardest, most sparkling, the rarest, most expensive ... It is interesting that until the XV century diamond valued less than other clear stones, as in its raw form it unattractive, and its natural splendor is manifested only in the smooth, perfectly regular crystals.
Grind the faces of the diamond steel in ancient India. Being properly faceted diamond decomposes rays of light on a rainbow of colors from all sides. From the XV century the main center of production of cut diamonds becomes Amsterdam. Prior to this period there were several types of facets.
"Indian cut" is that the diamond grind the top and on the sides make eight regular face - octahedron. Technology peaked grinding got its birth in Bruges. In Amsterdam, used "polishing pad", much like the Indian, and later came the famous cut "Mazarin" with a big top and a lot of small lateral faces. Finally, in 1600, in Paris, designed the most perfect "full cut" diamond was first called "brilliant." It is a form of two truncated pyramids stacked bases and supplemented with small faces. This stone shines like the sun! Improved and "Rose". They were made with 12, 24 and 32 faces. Appeared fancy shapes: oval, pear, and even chechevidnaya that would otherwise called the "Marquis".
The best diamonds still faces in Amsterdam, where there are special factory and lapidary machines: large cleaved facets, and then polished with diamond dust. Molders, jewelers and traders are one guild, or expose the secrets of his craft, whose success is based primarily on experience and intuition. Diamonds are whimsical and do not like strangers. A well-known saying among gemologists (fromHistory of Diamonds): "This area is bordered by the magic of art, its market is London (which always brought the best diamonds from India and Brazil), Factory - Amsterdam, and the studio - Paris, where he always had the best jewelers.
History of Diamonds: Forms
For large stones in the XVII-XVIII centuries craftsmen have developed complex forms of diamonds: "Old English" (26 faces), "Lisbon" (84 faces), "Portuguese" (42 faces), "gangway" - two rows of diamond-shaped and triangular three rows of facets "stellate" - hexagon and six adjacent triangles form a diamond pattern in the center of the star. Six-pointed star in the center of the diamond has always been given a magical significance.
History of Diamonds: Imitation
Bthe history of European art jewelry expensive diamonds sought to imitate other transparent stones. For these purposes, used zircon, corundum, euclase, topaz, beryl, rock crystal. In 1976, in England, George. Ravenscroft found a way to simulate diamonds, adding to the normal lead oxide glass. The resulting glass sparkled them many times stronger than normal and was namedcrystalThat in Russian is pronounced as crystal. In 1730, the German jeweler Y.Shtrass from Strasbourg organized in Paris production of artificial diamonds, also made of glass doped with alumina, lime and sodium oxide. They are called by its name - "crystals". But, despite all the fakes, sometimes very similar to real diamonds, expertly cut diamonds remain invincible.
For allHistory of Diamonds, Happened to them a lot of interesting events. How many lives have been ruined, how warped the fate of this divine, but also cursed people rock! But more about that, and not only, I will tell you in my next article.
Shuvalov Eugene.
Women's magazine JustLady