Gemstones

ISBN-13: 9789401070300 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 372 str.

Michael O'Donoghue

Opis

Gemstones is the first attempt in English to bring together the geological, mineralogical and gemmological developments that have taken place during the last thirty years. Though there have been many gemstone books published in that time, most have been concerned, understandably and rightly, with the science of gem testing and have covered that area very well. Details of the geological occurrence of many of the classic gemstones, and of nearly all those which have only recently been discovered, have been less adequately dealt with. Coverage has been restricted to a number of papers in a wide variety of geological and mineralogical journals. Gemstones hopes to get the balance right. In the preparation of the book all the journals and monographs in the field have been consulted so that the book should stand for some years as the authority to which gemmologists and others turn in the first instance. Ease of reference and depth of coverage make Gemstones both a reference book and a bench book. Acknow ledgements I am grateful to Brian Jackson of the Department of Geology, Royal Museums of Scotland who read the manuscript and painstakingly indicated places where amendment or alteration was needed. I am also grateful to the publishers of the books on which the line illustrations are based. The colour plates present in the book derive from a number of sources, which I would like to acknowledge as follows. Plates 1, 4-15 and 17 Crown copyright reserved.

Spis treści

1 Formation and occurrence of gemstones.- 1.1 Formation of inclusions.- 1.2 Inclusions in the major gemstones.- 1.3 Photographing inclusions.- 2 The nature of gemstones.- 2.1 Valency.- 2.2 Bonding.- 2.3 The building blocks of crystals.- 2.4 Polymorphism and isomorphism.- 2.5 The classification of minerals.- 2.6 Crystal structure.- 2.7 Properties of crystals.- 2.8 Gem crystals.- 3 Gem testing.- 3.1 Hardness.- 3.2 Gemstones and light.- 3.3 Specific gravity.- 4 Recent developments in gem testing.- 4.1 Thermal conductivity.- 4.2 Measurement of refractive index.- 4.3 Measurement of reflectivity.- 4.4 Surface assessment.- 4.5 X-ray topography.- 4.6 The electron microscope.- 4.7 The electron microprobe.- 4.8 Electron paramagnetic resonance.- 4.9 Energy dispersive X-ray spectrophotometry.- 4.10 UV spectrophotometry.- 5 Colour.- 5.1 The physics of colour.- 5.2 The chemistry of colour.- 5.3 Colour filters.- 5.4 The spectroscope.- 5.5 Alteration of colour.- 6 Fashioning.- 6.1 Fashioning of diamond.- 6.2 Other stones.- 7 Gemstones in commerce.- 7.1 Diamond grading.- 7.2 Buying gemstones.- 8 Descriptive section: inorganic materials.- 9 Descriptive section: organic materials.- 10 Synthetic and imitation stones.- 10.1 Crystal growth from solution.- 10.2 Growth by flame-fusion.- 10.3 Hydrothermal growth.- 10.4 Crystal pulling.- 10.5 Flux-melt growth.- 10.6 Manufacture of important stones.- 10.7 Composites.- 10.8 Glass.- 10.9 Metals.- 10.10 Ceramics.- 10.11 Plastics.- Appendix A Identification tables.- A1 Specific gravity.- A2 Refractive index.- A3 Birefringence.- A4 Dispersion.- A5 Hardness.- A6 Cleavage.- A7 Less common and trade names.- Appendix B Useful sources of information.- Appendix C Birthstones.