Home » categories » rare book library » Hershey. Book of the Diamond.

Ch. 8: Properties and Tests Diamonds Diamonds

Ch. 7: Diamonds in Other Areas Page of 153 Ch. 8: Properties and Tests Diamonds Diamonds Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
     
     
 
CHAPTER EIGHT
 
 

 
 
PROPERTIES AND TESTS FOR DIAMONDS
 
 

 
 
The diamond is a form of carbon and differs from pure charcoal or pure soot merely in the arrangements of the atoms of carbon in the molecules. A diamond is pure car­bon. Let us consider carbon for a moment. Of the ninety-two elements which compose the earth's crust, carbon is one of the commonest and the most familiar to us. It is everywhere present in nature. It occurs in all living matter. The human body is one-eighth carbon. Wood is about half carbon. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the houses we live in—the very air we breathe—all contain carbon. When the carbon crystallizes into geometrical shapes-octahedrons (with eight triangular faces), cubes, rhombic dodecahedrons (with twelve rhombic faces), and related structures—it is what we call diamonds. The faces and edges of the crystals frequently are curved. It has a very perfect cleavage by which the primary form of the octahedron may be derived.
All diamonds have a definite cleavage or grain, much like a piece of wood. These planes of weakness are not vis-
67
 
 

 
     
Ch. 7: Diamonds in Other Areas Page of 153 Ch. 8: Properties and Tests Diamonds Diamonds
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page