Diamonds radiate with more than their sparkle. They radiate with romance! With love! With dreams come true! For some people these words are all synonymous. Diamonds are a girls best friend, sang Carol Channing in the Broadway show, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and a half-century later these words still resonate with some truth. Immortalized as a symbol of love at an engagement, diamonds have adorned the heads of kings and queens, and been the bait of ransom for others. Many men have died trying to acquire diamonds, and women have been known to sell their honor to be able to wear them. Diamonds themselves were found in India many thousands of year ago and adorned only the wealthiest at that time.
Diamonds also play another role in our society that of being one of the hardest known substances that modern industry can use. The word diamond originally came from the Greek word adamas, which meant indestructible. Because the majority of diamonds mined are either too small or too imperfect to adorn the hand of love, they are used for industrial purposes where their hardness, rather than their beauty, reflects their value.
Diamonds are measured by weight, much like coal or...