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.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you'd like to sound off on this issue, please take part in the WorldNetDaily poll.

[RightWhale]

How is a star sports figure to atone for his transgressions when he can't buy a $4 million stone for his spouse because all diamonds now cost $1 a carat?

[najida]

So, I wonder what will replace the diamond as the ultimate token of devotion?

Sheetrock (sorry, inside joke). :)

[norraad]

...token of devotion?

Somehow that sounds oximoronic to me.

<.who you callin' a moron!

[dfwgator]

So, I wonder what will replace the diamond as the ultimate token of devotion?

A house?

[AdamSelene235]

What an assinine statement. Diamonds are diamonds; I'll take cheap flawless ones over expensive flawed ones any day of the week.

But unless 2 or 3 child soldiers die, how will your wife know that you truly love her?

[Sundog]

Of course you are right, and flawless diamonds are supposed to be manufactured with something that makes them fluoresce slightly so they can be quickly detected. There is nothing illegal about not doing so, and there are apparently more ways coming on line to manufacture them. De Beers want it to be illegal tho...

My daughter has a 100+ carat clunker left over from a drill manufacturing step where it came out 3/10,000" off spec, but it isn't clear.

[Tax-chick]

You must have read "Blood Diamonds."

It will be interesting to see how this pans out ... of course, "flawless" is not the biggest thing in how a diamond looks. A diamond with inclusions that's at the top of the color scale will look nicer than a "flawless" one of a lesser color.

[r9etb]

This sudden arrival of mass-produced gems threatens to alter the public's perception of diamonds – and to transform the $7 billion industry.

Diamonds: aluminum for the 21st Century?

[COUNTrecount]

Kobe Bryant must be very saddened by this information.

[Centurion2000]

Wonder how these dealies compare with moissanite?

They blow moissanite away. They are REAL flawless diamonds. I sent an email out to that company as a curiousity and they are making yellow, flawless diamonds. They will also be making blue ones in the future.

Text of the email I got back from them.

Thank you for your interest in our beautiful canary yellow cultured diamonds. We have not yet rolled out our retailer network. We plan on being in 6 to 8 locations by this holiday season. Until we establish our network of resellers, we are selling direct and through our Internet partners. You might contact your local jeweler and request that they contact our sale department. If you would like to look at some stones on-line, please visit our web site www.gemesis.com or visit Takara at www.takaradiamond.com. Although we do not sell directly through our site, you can call us or e-mail us with specific information regarding what size, color and cut you are interested in and we can help you choose your cultured diamond.
We currently have most cuts in size range between 0.2 and 1.5 carats. Our prices range from $1750 per carat for smaller stones up to $3250 per carat for VS quality fancy yellow diamonds over one carat. We do have some good discounts on some of our stones as this is our initial introduction to the market. Our larger sizes are moving fast due to the tremendous amount of interest that the recent publicity has generated for us, so please let us know what type of stone you are interested in. Again, I appreciate your interest in Gemesis Cultured Diamonds. Please call us at 941 907-9889 if we can answer any questions for you.
Best regards,
B. Davidson
Product Director
The Gemensis Corporation

Hope it helps drive DeBeers into the ground.

[norraad]

...oooh, 'dat a gut'one!

[mewzilla]

So, I wonder what will replace the diamond as the ultimate token of devotion?

Fidelity?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Shouldn't it be possible to make diamonds with just about any color desired? That would be cool, a diamond rainbow.

[norraad]

Stupid is as stupid does.

[Bernard Marx]

If you want facts, not fantasy, check out this link to the top jewelry/diamond publication in the U.S.:

http://www.jckgroup.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA317139&industry=Gemstones+and+Pearls&industryid=704&webzine=jck&publication=jck

This is the third thread on this subject I'm aware of, by the way.

[SauronOfMordor]

If they get the process's cost down low enough, and can produce large diamonds in pre-determined shapes, diamond parts could replace steel parts in certain applications requiring high-hardness.

Imagine having a diamond chef's knife whose edge was atomicly-sharp, and would never need honing

[Doctor Stochastic]

The actual "Wired" article fails to mention "evolutionists." This is a re-write by WorldNetDaily. Perhaps the figure that all scientists are evolutionists. Or perhaps they are just share the general scientific ignorance that the rest of journalism exhibits.

[Quix]

OK already yet.

I want a cobalt blue one as a free sample.

Have never liked plain diamonds that much.

[DPB101]

As long as diamonds retain their value, there will be a black market for it. And that means suffering and death in Africa.

The business fuels organized crime around the world. The diamond dealer busted in NYC last week for financing the sale of shoulder held missiles to take down U.S. aircraft is just one very small example.

[Tax-chick]

So, I wonder what will replace the diamond as the ultimate token of devotion?

Fidelity?

Household help!