Diamond Mining and Uses

Essay by folkloreJunior High, 8th gradeB, January 2004

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Diamonds are used in countless ways. They are used in manufacturing and medicine to create top-quality scalpels and machinery, for diamonds are the hardest substances known to man and offer the highest accuracy in tools. They also come in several colors, despite the traditional belief that they are merely one transparent shade, and are very popular in the jewelry industry. Though expensive, they can be obtained synthetically for a much cheaper price without impurities and are mined most exclusively in South Africa, Russia, Congo, Botswana, and Australia. In Africa, which produces more than half of all the diamonds found globally per year, mining them is a chief industry.

First, diamonds are used in the fields of medicine and science. Diamond scalpels are regularly utilized for their hardness and accuracy. The earliest incision of the first surgery is as precise as the last incision on the hundredth surgery. The thinnest scalpel ever created was manufactured using Diamaze technology.

It is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as having a breadth of 0.12 mm, barely twice the width of a human hair. The Indian natural healing branches of science, Ayurveda and Unani, involve the use of powdered gems or their ashes to cure ailments. Under these beliefs, powdered diamonds are never ingested, for they may slice the intestines, but their bhasma, or ashes, may cure tuberculosis, insanity, dropsy, diabetes, ulcers, anemia, and inflammation. Also, if taken over a prolonged time period, diamonds lengthen one's life and give them a radiant appearance. Today, a company named Meyco creates tools including diamond knives. Plans for these knives began in 1970, when Meyco embarked on a project that involved cutting very small specimens in the study of ultramicrotomy. Five years later, they produced the first knife for the cutting of the cornea in...