DIAMOND SYMBOLIZES SPARKLE OF MARRIAGE.Byline: Associated Press It's just a little chunk of carbon, crystallized. But the crystal is enduring and full of surprises, like the good marriage it symbolizes. The diamond has been prized as a betrothal symbol since at least the 15th century, when Archduke arch·duke n. 1. In certain royal families, especially that of imperial Austria, a nobleman having a rank equivalent to that of a sovereign prince. 2. Used as a title for such a nobleman. Maximilian of Austria Maximilian of Austria may refer to the following members of the Habsburg dynasty:
Diamonds of that period were used in their natural crystal state - looking much like two pyramids joined base-to-base - notes Antoinette Matlins in "Engagement and Wedding Rings" (Gemstone gemstone Any of various minerals prized for beauty, durability, and rarity. A few noncrystalline materials of organic origin (e.g., pearl, red coral, and amber) also are classified as gemstones. Press; $14.95 paperback). Pyramids were identified with strength, power and mystery, she writes. "The very shape of the natural diamond crystal may have made it all the more attractive as the choice to symbolize the power of love and marriage." But the best was to come, with later knowledge of how to cut this hardest of substances and unlock its innate brilliance and fire. Romantic as this sounds, these qualities can be defined scientifically, according to the Diamond Information Center, an industry group. The modern diamond starts from the rough crystal, which is divided, or cleaved cleaved (klevd) split or separated, as by cutting. , by the cutter, following the crystal's natural grain. Then the gem is polished and shaped into facets - plane surfaces designed to achieve the highest degree of reflection and refraction refraction, in physics, deflection of a wave on passing obliquely from one transparent medium into a second medium in which its speed is different, as the passage of a light ray from air into glass. . The typical polished diamond has 57 or 58 facets, each proportioned in geometric relation to the others. When a ray of light touches the surface of the diamond, part of it bounces back into the eye of the observer, and the rest penetrates the stone and, as it goes, bends because of the optical density of the diamond - a process called refraction. Then it makes a return trip from the internal surfaces of the diamond and emerges from the top, where it is bent again, revealing the colors of the spectrum. This light show looks like a dancing fire. The effect is influenced by the natural color and clarity of the stone. But no other gem matches the diamond's ability to sparkle, according to the DIC DIC diffuse intravascular coagulation; disseminated intravascular coagulation. DIC abbr. disseminated intravascular coagulation Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) . |
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