News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds. Parent comment

Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by wlesieutre on Tuesday May 29, 2018 @11:02PM (#17184719)
Mineral name wise, sapphires are a type of corundum. Usually blue, sometimes green, yellow, orange, or others, depending on various metals mixed into it. But if it’s red (via chromium) it’s a ruby instead.

Clear crystalline aluminum oxide you’d generally just call corundum (or aluminum oxide if you’re not feeling fancy), but that doesn’t market as well when you’re making watch faces and camera lenses out of it, so I guess we’re calling that sapphire now too.

TLDR: Gemstone naming seems a bit super arbitrary and marketing driven (not that I’m an expert on the subject)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by thaumasiotes on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @02:30AM (#17185529)
The names ruby and sapphire are not marketing driven; they are color terms that long predate the development of chemistry to the point where we could determine what gems were.

Many famous historical "rubies" are not corundum but spinel; they were called rubies because "ruby" was the term for any red gemstone.

"Moissanite" is purely marketing, though.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by radisb on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @06:48AM (#17186572)
I can also verify this. I currently have 932 flawless imperial rubies in my stash and they are all red.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by logfromblammo on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @10:12AM (#17187762)
One of the drawbacks of being dragonborn is the hoarding instinct.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by pierredewet on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @10:44AM (#17188037)
Proudspire Manor won’t buy itself
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by wlesieutre on Thursday May 31, 2018 @04:04PM (#17199704)
Looks like a Diablo 3 reference to me. Put one of those in your hat for +37% exp!
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by radisb on Friday June 01, 2018 @08:43AM (#17204746)
:)
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by thaumasiotes on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @03:11PM (#17190720)
Sadly, I do not personally own any historically significant jewelry. But you can read about it pretty easily.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Prince%27s_Ruby

> The Black Prince's Ruby is a large, irregular cabochon red spinel weighing 170 carats (34 g)

> It wasn't until 1783 that spinels were differentiated from rubies.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by blacksmith_tb on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @06:56PM (#17192623)
Well, all non-red corundums are called "sapphire" - with qualifiers for anything that isn't blue (all those yellow and pastel colors, which are all called "fancy sapphires"), and a special exception for pinkish-orange, which are called padparadscha[1].

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphire#Padparadscha

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by nonamenoslogan on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @12:57PM (#17189375)
Not all red sapphires are rubies--ruby describes "pigeon blood blue" red color. There are also ceylon sapphires that range from pinkish to fire-engine red through burnt orange in color.
[ Parent | on HN ]