| There are perhaps no two substances more different | | | | subjected to pressures of up to 882,000 pounds per |
| visually or symbolically than diamonds and lumps of | | | | square inch - over 440 tons. Furthermore, the |
| coal. However, diamonds and coal are virtually identical | | | | temperatures that cause this transformation into white |
| from a chemical and geological standpoint. The | | | | and colored diamonds is over 800 hotter than the |
| important difference is that the former are not only | | | | furnaces that are required in the melting and |
| pleasing to the eye and symbolic as jewelry, they are | | | | manufacture of steel. |
| an excellent investment - and useful in industrial | | | | Such temperatures and pressures only occur naturally |
| machinery as well. | | | | deep under the earth's surface - so deep that even |
| Of course, gem grade stones are quite different - and | | | | the deepest diamond mines can only reach these |
| far more valuable - than industrial grade. In fact, four | | | | precious stones that have been brought close to the |
| fifths of all that are mined are deemed unsuitable for | | | | surface through tremendous geological activity. This is |
| diamond jewelry, and thus are used for industrial | | | | one reason that they are found primarily in the Great |
| applications - primarily in activities that require cutting, | | | | Rift Valley of Africa and in the Himalayan foothills |
| drilling, grinding and polishing. | | | | where the Indian subcontinent plows into Asia. |
| Since the 1950s, scientists have actually been able to | | | | These conditions have been replicable in the laboratory |
| manufacture artificial diamonds in laboratories as well. | | | | for over half a century; however, natural and artificial |
| This has to do with the similarity between these and | | | | diamonds each have their own unique flaws, which are |
| coal, the difference between which is more of degree | | | | detectable by trained, professional gemologists. |
| than process. Both are made of carbon that has been | | | | One difference has to do with color as well; natural |
| subjected to heat and pressure. What happens is that | | | | colored diamonds are not terribly uncommon, and |
| diamonds are subject to much greater amounts of | | | | come in a wide range of hues. Some of these color |
| both - as much as 60,000 times that of normal air | | | | variations can add tremendous value to a gem. Loose |
| pressure at sea level, and up to 2300 degrees | | | | diamonds made artificially are almost always of the |
| Fahrenheit. | | | | white variety; colored stones make up only one in |
| To put this into perspective, the pressure of the air we | | | | every ten thousand. When purchasing loose diamonds |
| live in is about 14.7 pounds per square inch. At 1083 | | | | whether as an investment or for use in jewelry, make |
| feet below the sea's surface (the current scuba diving | | | | sure that such diamonds have been certified by an |
| record), the pressure is over 482 pounds per square | | | | independent gemology professional. |
| inch. Carbon that is transformed into diamonds is | | | | |