Category Geology

Gems have played an important part in medicine since around the 1960s. Rubies are used to produce a laser beam in certain types of lasers. Ruby lasers are used in the removal of skin blemishes, such as tattoos. However, there can be side-effects to this treatment, such as scarring and a removal of natural skin colour in the area.

Diamond has many special properties. Hard diamond chips are used on dental drills to allow them to cut easily through teeth. Many kinds of radiation can travel easily through diamond and it can withstand huge pressures. This makes it suitable for use in space, and in weather and spy satellites. Perfect diamonds are used on space probes, as they are unlikely to be damaged by the deadly gases found on some planets, such as Venus.

Quartz is often used in precision instruments. Scientists discovered that when quartz crystals are put in an electric field, they will vibrate. The precise way in which the quartz is cut affects the speed at which it vibrates. This exact vibration is used as the beat to keep time in a ‘quartz’ clock or watch. Tiny ‘jewel’ bearings, often rubies, are fitted inside clockwork watches. They are used because their surfaces are not worn away by the workings of the watch.

High-quality natural diamonds are used to make fine scalpel blades for surgeons to use in delicate eye operations. The precision-made stylus in a record player pick-up is also a diamond and therefore lasts for a long time. Heat flows through diamond very easily, so tiny diamond pieces are used in television transmitters to keep electronic devices cool.

A quartz watch

In a quartz watch, a battery produces electric pulses. These electric pulses ‘wobble’ the quartz. As long as the battery continues to do this, the quartz will ‘wobble’ at an exact rate to create a steady pulse. This helps to keep the watch showing the correct time.

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Diamond is harder than any other substance. It can cut through anything. For this reason it has many uses in industry. Diamond powder is used for polishing lenses and gems, and for sawing tiny silicon wafers to make computer chips. Diamond is used in drills to make holes in stone and concrete. Whole ‘stones’ are used for engraving glass, as teeth in large saws for slicing stone and as drills powerful enough to cut holes in road surfaces. They are also set into the drills of oil and gas wells exploring under the sea bed.

In the future, diamonds may be used to make very small and powerful computers, radiation detectors, unwettable and unscratchable surfaces and as light emitters in electronic displays.

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Some types of gems are made as imitations of more valuable gemstones. Often, cheaper natural gems that look similar are used. For example, citrine looks like the more costly topaz. Sometimes, artificial gems are used.

‘Gemologists’ test gems and crystals to find out exactly what they are made of. They have to look closely inside the gem through a lens or a microscope. They also test the quality of light coming out of a gem and can tell whether the sapphire is artificial or natural.

Gemstones can be sandwiched together with other substances to create ‘gems’ that can be sold for more than they are really worth. This method is also used to create cheaper jewellery.

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We have seen how crystals are made up of atoms fitted together in regular patterns. These patterns can be made to change — with dramatic results! Black graphite is made of carbon atoms; diamond is also made up of carbon atoms but arranged in a different pattern. By applying huge amounts of pressure the carbon atoms in black graphite can be squeezed together to make a more compact diamond pattern. This process is only used to make industrial quality diamonds. It’s too expensive to make a diamond large enough to be set into a ring.

A hard, sparkling, artificial substance called cubic zirconia (CZ) is made into gems which look just like diamond. CZ gems are much cheaper than diamonds.

Ruby and sapphire furnace

Artificial crystals are made in furnaces. Rows of these furnaces make clear, sausage-shaped crystal rods of ruby or sapphire. These are cut in great numbers to make very inexpensive gems. Other kinds of furnaces are used to make perfect crystals which are used in lasers. CZ crystals are made in special furnaces at temperatures of more than 2,500°C.

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There are many ways of shaping, or ‘cutting’, a gemstone. A person who cuts gems is called a ‘lapidary’. The gems are cut to display their colour, fire, sheen or other beautiful optical effect. Gems are sliced with diamond saws and ground into flat facets or curved surfaces. They are then polished with diamond or ruby powder.

Many clear gems are cut with flat, mirror-like facets. Their angles are carefully set to allow for the way that the light ‘bends’ as it enters and leaves the gem. Each kind of gem has its own special set of facet angles: brilliant cut ruby has different angles from topaz, for example. A faceted gem will twinkle or show its colour well only if it has been cut with correct facet angles.

Different types of cut: (a) emerald, (b) pear, (c) round, (d) oval, (e) marquise.

‘Cabochons’ are gems that have been cut in the shape of a dome. This type of cut shows off bright colours in opaque gems — gems that do not let light through. Cabochons are also made to reveal beautiful tricks of light, such as ‘stars’ in certain rubies and sapphires, the sheen in moonstones, colours in opals and the bright line which can be seen inside the rare, honey-coloured ‘cat’s eye’ gems.

The ‘emerald cut’ is oblong with the corners cut off. Long facets reflect lots of light back from deeply coloured, transparent gems. Some gems are carved so that little scenes, symbols or figure-heads stand out. These are called ‘cameos’. Opals are often cut into cabochons to show off their colours.