May 2005 Archives
Diamonds heated In Microwave Oven will Protect Your On-line Purchases!
Encrypted messages used for credit card purchases online, may be become even more secure thanks to diamonds heated in a glorified microwave oven.
The new technology is by James Rabeau, a research fellow in the University of Melbourne’s School of Physics.
How does this innovation work? Most high speed communication networks use light particles, or photons, to transfer information. Trillions of photons speed down optical fibres all over the world, transferring all manner of sensitive details.
This is where 'quantum cryptography,' which involves using single light particles to encode information, comes in. The concept of quantum cryptography has been around since the 1980s, says Rabeau, but no one so far found a way of producing single particles of light reliably and efficiently at room temperature.
Rabeau has built a device that would deliver single photons from diamonds into an optical fibre. The new technology that Rabeau has patented is based upon a process known as chemical vapor deposition (CVD,) which takes place in a glorified microwave oven, to deposit diamond crystals at one end of an optical fibre. When a laser hits the diamond encrusted tip of the optical fibre, single photons are wrapped around the data and sent down the optical fibre as part of a message.
Rabeau has a worldwide patent on the process, which provides the first reliable and cheap source of single photons.
James, when you're done with this, see if you can get computer screens developed with robotic arms that will deliver diamonds and jewelry. WOW! Wouldn't that be something!
A Diamond Ring Fit for a Princess-for $36!
Wal-Mart's British subsidiary is offering a $36.00 version of the platinum and diamond engagement ring Prince Charles gave to camilla Parker Bowles. (read about it here)
The original values at almost $1 million is a timeless classic but Wal Mart wanted to give it's customers a taste of royalty for a fraction of the price. The ring went on sale April 8, the date of the Royal Wedding. Only 1000 pieces have been manufactured.
The original ring, made in the 1920s was a gift by the future King George VI to his wife Elizabeth when she was pregnant with the present Queen, Elizabeth II.
Diamond & Jewelry Week In Review: 5/6/05
Demand for larger well made fancy(2ct+) diamonds is very strong across the board. Diamond rough availability is improving but prices are still very high. Princess Cuts are very strong. Pears and Ovals, doing well with improved demand for Hearts. Larger, better Emeralds (2ct+,H+,SI2+) doing well and Asscher cuts very strong across the board. Marquises demand improving with shortages.
Rough prices calming down but still much too high in relation to polished prices and current level of retail demand.
Gold futures in New York fell sharply in early trading Friday as a surprisingly strong U.S. April nonfarm payrolls report boosted the dollar and dulled the allure of bullion for investors. Gold is at $424.95. Platinum has dropped slightly to $874.00
Brides Have Huge Input On (Their) Engagement Rings!
A recent article in one of the industry magazines says that today's brides have more influence than ever on the ring their future husbands are buying from them. According to theknot.com about 65 percent of brides-to-be drop hints about the diamond engagement ring they want. Kari Slater, account executive of Fruchtman Marketing, Toledo, Ohio, which specializes in jewelry marketing, corroborates the same thing.
"Now more than ever, women are really driving the purchase of engagement rings," says Slater. An engagement ring is often a couple's first major purchase; brides are often instrumental in choosing the store or pointing out photos of rings they really like.
At Exceldiamonds.com, this has been our experience as well. We very often will see the bride and groom come visit with us in our showrooms to look at loose diamonds for her engagement ring. During this phase which can sometimes last a few weeks with multiple visits to our showroom, the bride is very much involved in the choosing of the loose diamond. Ultimately, once the diamond has been chosen we usually see the bride taken out of the picture and the groom making the actual purchase and creating an element of surprise for a special proposal etc....
Internet Mother's Day Diamond Sales Rise 101%!
Internet e-commerce tracker, VeriSign Inc., says that Mother's Day online purchases rose 24 percent from 1 year ago to $4.4 billion. VeriSign measured sales from April 25, 2005, through May 8. Jewelry purchases increased 79 percent. Diamond purchases rose 101 percent and the average diamond purchase was $517.
"Mother's Day has arrived as one of our larger retail holidays. Where once this holiday would have been acknowledged with a phone call and a heartfelt card, we're increasingly seeing people using it as an opportunity to send expensive items, such as a necklace pendant," said Trevor Healy, vice president, Payment Services, VeriSign.
VeriSign alone accounts for 37 percent of e-commerce transactions across the North American continent and services 135,000 online retailers.
Houdini, Where Are You?
Remember Houdini's tricks of levitation? You asked yourself, "How the heck did he do that?"
Well, Levitation is a 'trick' no more and it will be used for diamond mining and exploration.
Levitating heavy objects could help in diamond mining, according to physicists at the University of Nottingham, England. In mining for precious stones, a method for accurately filtering the gems from the surrounding rock and soil is possible. Work by scientists concluded that after using liquid oxygen to levitate diamond and some of the heaviest elements, lead and platinum, and with a specially designed super conducting magnet, they increased buoyancy and could levitate an object with a density 15 times larger than that of the densest known material, osmium.
Writing for the article, Professors Laurence Eaves and Peter King, described how mixtures of oxygen and nitrogen in the liquid and gaseous states provide sufficient buoyancy to levitate a wide variety of objects including diamonds and metals.
Magnetic levitation occurs when the force on such an object is strong enough to balance the weight of the object itself. If the object is immersed in a fluid such as gaseous oxygen, the levitation can be enhanced by the effect of buoyancy caused by the “magneto-Archimedes” effect.
Liquid oxygen, the main component in many rocket fuels, is highly combustible. It is potentially dangerous to use but makes it much easier to float dense objects using commercially available magnets because it boosts the buoyancy effect due to the inherent magnetism of each molecule of oxygen. This allows you to float objects as heavy as gold with relatively low-power magnets. Eaves and King and their co-workers investigated the use of a safer mixture of liquid nitrogen and oxygen, and found the optimal mixture for floating heavy objects safely, making commercial applications of this technology possible.
King said, “You can use this technology to accurately sort minerals. Under vibration you throw crushed ore into the air and in the magnet the different components experience different effective gravity. They therefore tend to land at different times and after a short while the vibration sorts them into bands according to their density. The method can discriminate between components with very small differences in density enabling you to extract the precious parts you require.”
Who knows...next time you see a magician doing feats of levitation, he just may be using Eaves and Kings method. Just make sure to put out your cigarette.
DeBeers Going Retail.
DeBeers Supplier of Choice Program, which is designed to install vertical integration among it's sightholders so that they become responsible for manufacturing the diamond rough to the marketing and selling of the finished polished diamond as well as jewelry to consumers now is proceeding full speed ahead.
For months New York City residents have watched De Beers prepare its new retail store at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th Street. And according to The Times of London, De Beers plans another 150 new retail stores in the coming 10 years.
De Beers LV --a joint venture with the LVMH Group, Moet Hennessey Louis Vuitton-- plans to open Manhattan's showroom in June 2005, followed by a store in Beverly Hills, California, in the fourth quarter of 2005.
The Times quoted Guy Leymarie, CEO of De Beers LV, as saying the target of 150 new stores would not all be operated by De Beers, but he did expect roughly half of the new stores to open in the United States. For decades post-WWII, De Beers was prohibited from conducting business in the United States due to antirust claims, but the issue has been settled and opened the door for business in the states.
London has the first De Beers LV retail store on Old Bond Street, opened in 2002, and De Beers LV owns three stores in Japan, of which two operate at a profit, Leymarie told The Times. Leymarie was chief executive of Cartier prior to joining De Beers LV in March 2004.
A new jewelry collection called Radiance will hit the London market during the week of May 16, 2005. The collection is designed by Raphaele Canot. Prices in the collection range from $18,000 (GBP 9,800) for a diamond ring, to $721,000 (GBP 390,000) for its Sun Grand Medallion.
The end of days for the diamond and jewelry middleman are nigh.
Perhaps an apt slogan for DeBeers ought to be:
"From The Mine To You".
Sarin Company Incorporating GIA's New Diamond Cut Grade System.
Israel’s Sarin Technologies will incorporate a new GIA cut grading system in its DiaVision product for grading and re-cutting polished diamonds and in Advisor, the company's rough diamond planning software.
Sarin Diamension machine measures Cut parameters of your Diamond.
A release issued on May 16 said that these new programs will work on most of Sarin’s existing machines, allowing them to continue to increase their productivity with only a software upgrade.
The new GIA cut grading system is the result of research on the way light behaves within diamonds and the relation between diamond proportions and its appearance. One of the conclusions of this research, implemented in the new grading system, is that diamonds of different appearance may still yield a top cut grade, allowing for higher potential rough yield for manufacturers, while providing the necessary flexibility to diamond traders and retailers who need to accommodate changing market needs.
Sarin Technologies is scheduled to present an advanced peek of the new GIA grading system in its products at the upcoming JCK Las Vegas Show,
June 2-9.
Buying Your Diamond: Rely on the "Numbers" or Light Performance?
We are constantly asked by Consumers to evaluate diamonds for them solely based on the "numbers" provided by the Laboratory certificate and the Cert's designation of the diamonds Polish and Symmetry. In our opinion, assessment of the "numbers" are important in describing external symmetry but can be limiting in that they do not tell you anything about the diamonds optical symmetry and Light Performance.
Light Performance is what you're buying and what you and everyone will notice.
We have published a tutorial on the importance of using Diamond Light Performance as a tool to base your purchase decisions.
Read it Here: Diamond Light Performance
We were asked yesterday whether in round shape diamonds a Symmetry designation of "Very Good" on a GIA Report is a negative and drop-off compared to a symmetry designation of "Excellent".
The answer is that Symmetry as shown on the GIA Cert refers to external meet-point symmetry, not optical symmetry or Light Performance.
The red arrows in the attached graphic show you the meet-points that are examined by GIA graders.
Red Arrows show the "Meet-Points" that determine the level of Symmetry.
To receive "Excellent" they must meet exactly and the meet-points of the Table - to - Crown - to - Pavillion must align exactly to each of the arrowed points. The difference between "Excellent" to "Very Good is indeed miniscule and microscopic and is something that no one will see or realize.
This external meet-point symmetry has absolutely no bearing on the diamonds light performance, which is what ultimately you are buying. No one will 'see' if the symmetry is "Excellent" or "Very Good" but you, and they, will definitely notice whether or not the diamond sparkles with light.
I've included two graphics showing Ideal Cut diamonds; one that we called in for a client and the other (our own SuperbCert H&A Diamond with Very Good Symmetry). Compare the light performance as measured by the Brilliancescope(www.gemex.com)of the diamond with "Excellent" symmetry to the light performance of the diamond with 'only' Very Good Symmetry. There are visibly dramatic and significant differences in Light Performance.
Ideal-Cut Diamond with "Excellent" Symmetry but poor-mediocre Light Performance as measured by Gemex's Brilliancescope Light Performance Analyzer.
Ideal-Cut Diamond with only "Very-Good" Symmetry but Superb Light Performance.
There are over 750,000 diamonds in the Gemex Database that have been scanned and evaluated for Light Performance. We have been using this technology for the past four years and find it an important tool for evaluating diamonds.
