Diamond (mineral, gem, and industrial material)

The name diamond is derived from the Late Latin diamantem, accusative of diamas, a Graecian modification of adamas, acc. adamanta, to Greek ἀδάμας, adámas, "indomitable". In classical Latin, as already in Greek, adamas was the name given to particularly hard materials, such as steel by Hesiod, probably diamond by Plato and Theophrastus, and sapphire by Pliny.

The oldest diamond finds are reported from India, allegedly as early as the 4th millennium BC. Already at that time, diamonds were said to have magical effects, which is why they were also used as talismans. Diamonds were also known to the ancient Romans and were highly valued.

The use of diamonds as tools was already described by Pliny the Elder in his work Naturalis historia, XXXVII 60. Around 600 A.D. the first diamond was reported on the Indonesian island of Borneo, but although India was now no longer the only source, the Indonesian finds remained insignificant because the numbers were too small and the transport to the trading cities too far. It was not until the 13th century that it was discovered that diamonds could be worked, but this was rejected in India as it was said that this would cause the stones to lose their magical powers. Today's typical brilliant cut ­was not developed until around 1910.

In the 18th century, Indian and Indonesian mines gradually became exhausted. When a Portuguese was searching for gold in Brazil, he discovered the first diamond outside Asia. This discovery caused a "diamond rush". The first diamond in the parent rock kimberlite was found in 1869 in Kimberley in South Africa. One year later South Africa took over the role of the main supplier, as finds in Brazil also became rarer.

At the World's Fair in Philadelphia in 1876, a stone circular saw set with diamonds was shown to the general public for the first time. In 1908, diamonds were also discovered on the diamond coast of German Southwest Africa, and in 1955 the first diamond was finally produced artificially. The first diamond on the seabed was not found until 1961. Today, Russia is the main supplier of diamonds.

In the meanwhile outdated, but still common 8th edition of the mineral systematics according to Strunz the diamond belonged to the mineral class of the "elements" and there to the division of the "semi-metals and non-metals", where it formed an independent group together with chaoite, fullerite, graphite, lonsdaleite and moissanite.

The 9th edition of Strunz's mineral system, valid since 2001 and used by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA), also classifies the diamond in the class of the "elements" and there in the division of the "metalloids and nonmetals". However, this division is further subdivided according to the related chemical elements, so that the mineral is to be found accordingly in the subdivision "carbon-silicon-family", where it forms only together with lonsdaleite the unnamed group 1.CB.10.

Also the systematics of the minerals according to Dana classifies the diamond in the class and department of the same name of the "elements". Here it is together with graphite, lonsdaleite, chaoite and fullerite in the "carbon polymorphs" with the system no. 01.03.06 within the subdivision "elements: Semimetals and nonmetals".