Sunday, January 8, 2012

All About Synthetic Diamonds

The first synthetic diamonds were produced  by General Electric in 1954. A synthetic  diamond is basically a rock that has the  durability, refractive index and hardness of  a natural diamond – but it is made by man.  A synthetic diamond should not be  confused with stimulant diamonds, such as  glass, cubic zirconia, or moissanite.

Although the technology for synthetic  diamonds came into play in 1954, no  synthetic diamonds were ever seen on the  market until the 1990’s. This was due to the  fact that it took many years for General  Electric to produce a synthetic diamond that  could compare with the quality of a natural  diamond – and when they figured out how to  do it, they found that it cost more to produce  a synthetic diamond than it did to mine and  cut natural diamonds.

Finally, a small company by the name of  Gemesis Corporation figured out a way to  produce synthetic diamonds that were of the  same quality as natural diamonds, at a  cheaper price. Today, Gemesis produces  synthetic white diamonds, and colored  diamonds as well. These diamonds sell for  about 1/3 of the cost of a natural diamond,  but there is a shortage of them, and they are  hard to find. In fact, it seems that synthetic  diamonds are rarer than natural diamonds!

No comments:

Post a Comment