https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1397652940288589&set=a.183367345050494.65944.100001316904182&type=3
http://aaqg-arunarya.blogspot.in/2017/07/dead-peopleand-pets-to-diamonds-httpswww.html
Orders for diamonds
made from human cremains aren't the only type that Algordanza receives.
"First we had the cremains of a German Shepard and now we have cremains of
a cat," Martoia said.
Algordanza's prices
start at $3,000 for a 0.3 carat diamond. Martoia said the average order is
about 0.4 to 0.5 carat, though US customers usually request bigger, 0.8-carat
diamonds.
But
Algordanza can make them much larger: The company recently took a $48,000 order
for 2-carat diamond. After 10 months of growth, the resulting gem actually
wound up being 1.76-carats — but it's still the largest memorial
diamond ever made by the company.
Some customers take
the rough gem, but many opt to have their memorial diamonds cut, faceted, and
polished by a jeweler in Switzerland.
Inside awaits a rough,
uncut, and unpolished diamond.
When enough time has
passed, technicians remove the puck of graphite and crack it open.
Depending on how big a
customer wants their diamond to be, it can take six to eight weeks in an HPHT
machine to coax graphite to crystallize into a gem. "The larger the
diamond, the longer it takes to grow," Martoia said.
That's like the entire
mass of the International Space Station bearing down on the face of a
wristwatch — then heating it up to a temperature exceeding that of lava.
That machine can heat
a growth cell to nearly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. It also squeezes the cell
under 870,000 pounds-per-square-inch of pressure.
To emulate that
environment, Algordanza inserts the cell (now packed with graphite) into a
platter and slides it into a high-temperature high-pressure (HPHT) growing
machine.
Natural diamonds form
out of carbon that gets stuck in lava tubes about a mile deep in the Earth's
crust.
The final purification
step converts the carbon into slippery sheets of graphite — the same type of
carbon in pencils. Graphite's microscopic flat sheets of carbon are an ideal
starter material for synthesizing diamonds.
The cell also contains
a tiny diamond to help the carbon crystallize into a rough shape, since carbon
crystallizes best when it touches an existing diamond.
The
diamond provides a "blueprint" for the carbon to work from,
which means the new diamond that eventually forms will require
less cutting and polishing.
To further purify the
carbon to 99.9% or more, technicians pack it into a growing cell that contains
iron and cobalt — additives that help remove contaminants.
When Algordanza
processes ashes, Martoia says, "it's nearly impossible to separate out the
boron from the carbon". This is because the two elements share similar
weights and properties.
"The diamonds can
range from clear to very deep blue," Martoia said. "The more boron,
the deeper the blue."
She
added that it's impossible to predict the exact color a memorial diamond
will take on.
"But
an interesting thing to note is that our technicians are seeing a
correlation in people who have had chemotherapy. Their diamonds tend to come out
much lighter," Martoia said. This may be because chemotherapy leaches away
the body's boron and other important micronutrients.
Boron is the impurity
that colors the rare blue diamonds found in nature — and is why many
"memorial diamonds" come out blue, too.
The other 1% contains
impurities like boron — an element and micro-nutrient that helps humans (and
other animals) grow bone, heal wounds, and regulate the immune system.
This bumps the carbon
purity of the processed ashes to about 99% or greater.
Once there's enough
carbon, the element is extracted and purified of contaminants like salts.
"We use an acidic chemical to get rid of impurities," Martoia said.
When the company
receives ashes from a customer, a technician puts a sample into a special oven
to see if there's enough carbon to grow a diamond. If there's not enough, the
amount of carbon in a lock of hair can make up the difference.
Martoia said
Algordanza requires a minimum of one pound of cremains. "That's kind of
the magic number, where our engineers can guarantee there will be enough carbon
to make a memorial diamond," she said.
Making a diamond from
a dead person begins with cremation. The process typically leaves behind about
5 to 10 pounds of ashes, much of which is carbon.
Styles
of cremation differ from culture to culture. Some use hotter temperatures for
longer, which allows more carbon to escape into the air as carbon dioxide
(which may mean more ashes are needed to form a diamond
Algordanza
Arya Add: A 0.2 Carat is sufficient. I seriously consider a 1000
year company that allows any one to add their diamond to that of ancestors.
Over 1000 years, it will become very valuable – by jewel and by history!
