Author: unknown source: unknown joining date: 2006- 1-27 popularity: 43
1 Cullinan
The world's largest gem diamond is called Cullinan, and its discovery is quite accidental. 190565438+1On October 25th, a manager named Wells happened to see a shiny thing half exposed on the ground of the mine in Primir Mine (also known as the Prime Minister Mine) in azania. He dug it out with a knife and saw that it was a huge gem diamond. Its weight in the old carat unit is 3024.75 carats (1 carat = 205 mg). Converted to the current metric carat (1 carat = 200mg), it is 3 106 carat, that is, 621.2g. The volume is about 5×6.5×l0cm, which is equivalent to the fist of an adult man. Pure and transparent, light blue tone, it is the highest grade gem diamond. Up to now, it is still the largest gem diamond found in the world.
Cullinan is not a complete crystal, it is only a part of a big crystal. Cullinan was too big for anyone at that time. Later, it was acquired by the local authorities in Transvaal for 6,543.8+0.5 million pounds, and presented to the British royal family on February 9, 654.38+0.907 to celebrate the birthday of King Edward III.
At the beginning of 1908, Cullinan was sent to Amsterdam, the most authoritative city in the Netherlands at that time, and was handed over to the company for handling in Achard, with a handling fee of 80,000 pounds. Because the original stone is too big, it needs to be broken into several small pieces as planned in advance. It is extremely difficult to break it, because if the research is not enough or the technology is not good, this huge gem will break into a pile of worthless small pieces.
The crushing work was completed by the famous Dutch craftsman Jo Aschar. He spent several weeks studying Cullinan, built a glass model according to its size and shape and designed a set of tools. He first tested the glass model with these tools, and the model was indeed split. After a few days' rest, in February 1908, 10, he and his assistant came to a special studio, clamped Cullinan in a big pliers, and then put a special steel wedge in a pre-ground groove on it. Joe Ashcar hit the steel wedge with a heavy stick, and with a bang, Cullinan did not move, but the steel wedge was broken. A cold sweat streamed down Askar's face, and he put a second steel wedge in an atmosphere as tense as an explosion. Hit hard again. This time, Kulifu split in half as planned, and Ashcar fainted on the floor.
After Cullinan split, three skilled craftsmen worked 14 hours a day and pondered for 8 months. A * * * is ground into 9 big diamonds and 96 small diamonds. The total weight of this 105 diamond is 1063.65 carats, accounting for 34.25% of Cullinan's original weight. It can be seen that the weight loss of diamonds after being processed into diamonds is great. The largest of the nine larger diamonds is called "African Star I", that is, "Cullinan 1". It weighs 530.2 carats, is in the shape of a water drop, and has 74 polished surfaces. It is also the largest diamond in the world today, inlaid on the scepter of the king of England. The second largest is called "African Star II", weighing 3 17.4 carats, with a square appearance and 64 facets. It is the second largest diamond in the world, and now it is embedded in the middle of the crown of the British Empire. The weights of the other seven capsules are 94.4, 63.6, 65,438+08.8, 65,438+065,438+0.5, 8.8, 6.8 and 4.39 carats respectively.
The nine big diamonds grinded by Cullinan all belong to the British royal family. Among them, "Cullinan No.1" and "Cullinan No.4" were once embedded in the Queen Mary's crown made in191year, and were later taken down for the queen's collection, and the crown was replaced by a replica of crystal. 19 19, another gem diamond weighing 1500 carats was found in Primir mine. The weight is the third in the world. It is also a fragment of a big crystal, similar in color to Cullinan. So some people think that it was broken from the same big crystal as Cullinan, so this diamond has not been given a special name.
No.3 Diamond of Destruction-Blue Hope
Diamond of doom
The English name of "Blue Hope" is Hope Blue, weighing 44.53 carats, dark blue and oval. It is an extremely rare treasure and is now in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, USA.
Around AD 1642, a large diamond weighing 1 12 carat was found in the sand layer of kister, India, and it was embedded in the statue for the blessing of the gods. But perhaps it was the shock of the gem that closed the eyes of the gods. Since then, "blue hope" has been accompanied by a strange and tragic experience, and everyone who owns it can hardly resist the bad luck of both people and money.
A monk was found stolen and burned alive. For various reasons, this diamond changed hands several times and was acquired by the French emperor Louis XIV. It was ground into a diamond weighing 69.0 3 carats, but he only wore it once and soon died of smallpox. Later, Princess Lambert, Louis XVI and Empress of the French royal family were all killed because of this gem. 1792 was stolen from the French vault and reappeared at 1830, but it has been ground into a 45.5-carat diamond. A jeweler in the Netherlands tried his best to get this gem, but it was stolen by his son. The jeweler committed suicide in a rage. 19 1 1 year, Macland, the postmaster in Washington, bought this gem for 15 1000 dollars. Two years later, his ending was particularly tragic. His son died in a car accident, markland died, and his daughter committed suicide by taking sleeping pills. Finally, from 65438 to 0958, another American rich man, the famous jeweler Winston, bought this gem, and he gave it as a precious gift to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, USA for visitors to watch.
Since entering the museum, the nightmare attached to "blue hope" has finally ended. It seems that beautiful things must be everyone's favorite.
No.4 expensive olivine cat's eye
Golden emerald cat's eye
Cat's eye refers to the emerald with cat's eye effect. Among all gems, there are many kinds of gems with cat's eye effect, but only chrysoberyl with cat's eye effect can be directly called cat's eye in national standards, and other gems with cat's eye effect can't be directly called cat's eye. The gold emerald mineral is beryllium aluminum oxide (BeAl2O4), and the primary mineral crystal is often tabular and short columnar, belonging to rhombic system, with refractive index of 1.745- 1.755, density of 3.76g/cm3, hardness of 8-8.5, and common colors are golden yellow, yellow green, gray green and brown. Cat's eye is mainly produced in Sri Lanka, Brazil and other places. Cat's eye in Sri Lanka has always been famous in the world.
The cause of cat's eye is that there are a lot of fine, dense and parallel filamentous rutile inclusions in chrysoberyl minerals, and the refractive index of rutile is 2.60-2.90. Due to the great difference in refractive index between chrysoberyl and rutile, the incident light is reflected by rutile inclusions and concentrated into light to form a cat's eye. The more opaque the chrysoberyl is, the denser the rutile filamentous inclusions are, and the more obvious the cat's eye effect is. When the jewel in the cat's eye is illuminated by a spotlight flashlight, at a certain angle, the cat's eye appears yellow to half of the light, while the other half appears milky white. If two spotlight flashlights are used to illuminate the cat's eye from two directions, and the gem is rotated back and forth around the direction of the filamentous inclusion, you can see that the cat's eye line opens for a while and closes for a while.
Fifth place "century"
Century diamond
Century diamond weighs 273 carats, which is not big. Ordinary diamonds have 58 cutting faces, and "Century" diamonds have 247 cutting faces, which were completed by world-famous diamond cutting experts in three years, and the value doubled. Seven years ago, this "century" diamond was sold, and no one knows the exact price. Outsiders only know that its insurance amount is $200 million.
The largest colored diamond in the world
The largest colored diamond in the world
The largest colored diamond in the world. The original stone is 890 carats and 407.48 carats cut and polished with pear-shaped drill. In the auction of 1988, it was sold at12.5 million USD.
No.7 mountain of light
The English name of "Mountain of Light" is Kon-I-Noor, weighing 108.97 carats, with colorless oval cut. It is produced in Golconda, India, ranking 33rd among the world famous diamonds.
The original stone of "Mountain of Light" is said to weigh 800 carats. After the first polishing by the jeweler, it became a big diamond of 1.9 1 carat, and then it was re-polished to 1.008.97 carat. This big diamond was originally owned by the Mughal emperor of India, and was taken away by the Persian emperor Nadir in 1739. Nadir was assassinated in 1747, and the noble Abedel took the opportunity to rob the diamond. 100 years later, during the Punjab War when Britain annexed India in 1849, Lord Dexter, the British governor, seized this gem and later presented it to Queen Victoria of England. Finally, the "Mountain of Light" diamond was permanently embedded in the crown of the king of England. But will this also bring permanent light to the British people?
No.8 Dresden diamond
Dresden diamond
According to legend, in 1743, Augusta spent 60,000 tilas (about 9,000 pounds) to buy a blue-green diamond weighing 40 carats. This diamond is pure and flawless and hidden in the treasure house of Dresden, France, hence the name "Dresden Green", which is the representative of green diamonds. Now its value is immeasurable.