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The mention of diamonds usually triggers thoughts of glamour and romance. Diamonds have pretty much become the standard for engagement rings.
And what woman doesn’t enjoy the sparkle and fire of a pair of diamond earrings?
But, there is much more to diamonds. They are the hardest chemical substance on earth. Of all the diamonds mined, many are not suitable to be worn in jewelry as gemstones. It is estimated that only about twenty percent of the diamonds mined are suitable as jewelry.
So what happens to that other eighty percent? It goes go work.
Diamonds in industry
Diamonds have been used in industry for many years. If you are old enough to know what a phonograph is, diamond needles probably provided you with many hours of pleasant music.
What about the home improvement center? There are items all around you when you go to the home improvement center to buy a few things for your latest project. In fact, you probably have items in your garage or workshop made partially of diamonds. Saw blades, polishing compounds, stones for sharpening, and abrasive pads.
Since diamonds are such a durable and abrasive substance which hold up well it is used in many of these applications and more.
We take many things for granted, since it’s someone else’s job, but diamonds are useful in medicine, providing cutting instruments to go through bone and tissue. Not a pretty thought, but if you need surgery, you certainly want a sharp instrument to get the job done right. Diamonds are also useful in both the dental and optical fields.
Speaking of fields, diamonds are useful in the drilling for oil. They are also used on devices for cutting granite and concrete, as well as in the textile industry for cutting out patterns.
Diamond are being used in the space program, and also by scientists in many fields.
Diamonds at work in the future
Diamonds are already making improvements in electronics and technology and this will continue and make dramatic improvements in the very near future. It will enable computers to run much faster without overheating, improve broadband, provide less expensive flat television sets, even smaller cell phones and ipods, with even more capabilities.
In the medical field there are projects underway that will enable those who have lost vision from genetic diseases to be able to see images though the implanting of microchips in the retina.
And joint replacement will be improved providing no friction replacements that are predicted to last a lifetime.
Man made diamonds
These are just a few of the present and future uses of diamonds. Man is always trying to one-up nature, and it would seem in some cases he is doing a pretty good job. Over the last fifty or so years, scientists have been working on the process of creating quickly what nature took eons to do.
In order to keep up with the future uses and the demand for diamonds, man made diamonds are being created in a lab situation. Some of these are even now being sold as wearable gemstones, and probably there will be more and better in the future.
There will definitely be a market for these man made diamond gemstones for industrial purposes, and a secondary market for jewelry, but I doubt if the real thing created by nature, will ever lose it’s appeal as a wearable and treasured gemstone.
