Gem Section

Associated with the American Federation of Mineral Societies Gem Section
Member of the Southeast Federation of Mineral Societies

Carl Ziglin - Gem Section Chair
gems@gamineral.org

Gem Section
Monday, January 26, 2008
6:30 pm Dinner
7:30 pm Meeting

Kim has developed a new program, which he will share with us in January: Gem Stones of Africa!

We will be meeting at:
The home of Kim Cochran
2695 Van Court
Snellville, GA 30278

Please phone 770-979-8331 to RSVP.

Answer to last month's Gem Section Trivia:
   Is Evening Emerald a beryl? No. It is the term the ancient Romans used for what we now call Peridot. In the faint light of oil lamps, the Peridot takes on a darker green color, more closely resembling Emeralds.

Gem Section Trivia:
What modern English expression comes from an ancient method of determining the purity of gold?

Thanks to all who helped make 2008 a great year for the Gem Section! Thanks to all who contributed and attended. Here is a list of 2008 meeting hosts:

January           Kim Cochram
February           Barbara and George Libby
March               Martha and Leroy Brown
April                  Kim Cochran
June                 Marilyn Tarantino
July                  Sue, Jay and Sarah Gorday
August              Gracia Evins
September        Anita Westlake
October             Nancy Marden
November          Mickey and Lizabeth McClain

We're looking for hosts for this year's gem section meetings. Please let me know if you're interested.

Carl Ziglin, Gem Chair
995 Laurel Mill Drive
Roswell GA 30076-2371
770-998-5975

Kim Cochran - GMS Curator

2004 Curator Report to the Membership:
2004 GMS GEM BOX Report:
For those who may not know, the gem box is a small assortment of gems and jewelry that has been purchased by GMS at wholesale and is sold at cost.

LapidaryLINKS

**New, lower temperature way found to make diamonds"**
01:21 PM ET 07/09/98 Release at 4 p.m. EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese scientists Thursday reported finding a new way to make diamonds, heating carbon and sodium at temperatures lower than previously used. They said their method was not perfect but a step to devising better ways to make diamond, which is widely used in industry. The researchers from Structure Research Laboratory and Department of Chemistry at the University of Science and Technology in Hefei, China, used a process called metallic reduction-pyrolysis-catalysis (RPC). "This method is a simple means of forming diamond,'' they wrote in a report published in the journal Science. The RPC process produced diamond powder at a yield of about 2 percent and graphite -- which, like diamond, is pure carbon but in the form of a grayish powder rather than the very hard crystal that is a diamond. Sodium, a nickel-cobalt alloy and carbon tetrachloride were put into a stainless steel container and heated at 1,290 degrees Fahrenheit for 48 hours, then removed to cool to room temperature. "This temperature is much lower than that of traditional methods,'' they wrote. Their tiny, grayish-black diamonds are a far cry from the most valuable industrial diamonds. "Improvements in the process of synthesizing of diamonds are still needed,'' they wrote. Diamonds have been synthesized previously at 1,470 degrees Fahrenheit), using carbon, water and metal. Synthetic diamonds differ in size, shape and impurities from natural diamonds. They also can be formed with the use of explosives. The researchers ran their gray-black powder through a X-ray diffractometer, a transmission electron microscopy and a Raman spectrum to confirm the formation of diamonds. They said finding a catalyst better than sodium may help in the process of making diamonds. ^REUTERS@


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