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Title: Dr. in the middle agesDuring the middle ages, doctors believed garnet would stop bleeding |
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Title: Sapphire CommandmentsIt is believed that the Ten Commandments were written on Sapphire tablets. |
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Title: Outback Opal's ruleAlmost 95 percent of the world's opals come from the Australian Outback. |
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Title: Clearly PopularThe most famous topaz is a colourless 1680 carat gem called the Braganza Diamond that is housed in the Portuguese Crown Jewels. |
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Title: In 1810Napolean Bonaparte gave his empress a dazzling diamond and turquoise crown as a wedding gift. However, the crown was not originally made with turquoise but instead with 79 emeralds which Bonaparte removed and replaced. |
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Title: GarnetThe Garnet gets its name from granatum, the Latin word for pomegranate. |
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Title: Guard Against WitchcraftIn ancient times, Onyx was used to guard against witchcraft and evil sorcery |
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Title: According to Greek mythThe goddess Artemis turned young maiden Amethyst into a pillar of colourless stone to protect her from the wrath of Dionysus, the god of wine. When Dionysus saw Amethyst's beauty, he repented for his rage by pouring wine over the girl, turning the stone purple. |
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Title: Honour PoseidonAncient Greek sailors wore Aquamarine pendants to honour Poseidon, the sea god. |
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Title: The melting point for diamondThe melting point for diamond is 6,417 degrees Fahrenheit or 3,547 degrees Celsius. |
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Title: Emeralds or peridotCleopatra was famously fond of emeralds, but some historians believe the gems she wore were actually peridot. |
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Title: Cultured PearlsA cultured pearl is any pearl grown with the influence of human intervention.
A pearl is formed when a small irritant or parasite penetrates and lodges in the mantle tissue of a mollusk. In response, a substance called nacre is secreted, and the creation of a pearl begins. Nacre is a combination of crystalline and organic substances. The nacre builds up in layers, as it surrounds the irritant to protect the mollusk, and after a few years, this build up of nacre forms a pearl.
Natural pearls, are pearls formed by chance. Cultured pearls have been given a helping hand by man. Today, nearly all pearls are cultured. By inserting a foreign object into a mollusk, pearl farmers can induce the creation of a pearl. From there, the same process of natural pearl creation takes place. The difference is that in this case, the inducement is intentional.
Cultured pearls can be distinguished from natural pearls through the use of x-rays, which reveal the inner part of the pearl. |
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Title: The Value of PearlsDuring Julius Caesar's reign of the Roman Empire, the value of pearls was so high that a single pearl could fund an antir war. |
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Title: Consume the Wealth of a NationCleapatra dissolved a single pearl in a glass of wine to win a bet with Marc Antony that she could consume the wealth of a nation at one meal. |
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Title: Passage to the AfterlifeThe ancient Egyptians believed carnelian helped aid in the soul's passage to the afterlife. That's why many tombs have been found to contain carnelian amulets and other carnelian jewellery. |
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Title: Ruby or not RubyTwo famed rubies among the British crown jewel collection - the Timur Ruby and the Black Prince's Ruby - are not rubies after all. They are actually two large spinels. |
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Title: Out of the World GemsTraces of peridot have been found in meteorites, making it the only jewellery-quality gem to exist in outer space. |
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Title: Apache GoldBetween 80 and 95 percent of the world's peridot comes from the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona. |
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Title: One and OnlyThe Peridot is one of the few gemstones that come in only one colour. The gem's rich green with a slight tinge of gold is caused by very fine traces of iron. |
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Title: 70 A.D.Earliest recorded production of Peridot, from St. Johns Island in the Red Sea, about 54 km. off the coast of Egypt. |
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Title: Eye Shadow with Medicinal PropertiesIn ancient Egypt, powered lapis lazuli was used as eye shadow by Cleopatra. It also was once believed that lapis had medicinal properties. It was ground down, mixed with milk and applied as a dressing for boils and ulcers. |
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Title: Druzy quartz crystalsDruzies are the tiny sparkling crystals found in a pocket within a stone.
Druzies are thin layers of quartz crystals covering the surface of a host stone. It is well known that amethyst or citrine get the source of their colour from this quartz crystal but usually Druzies takes the host stone's colour which is seen through it as in chrysocolla or uvarovite garnet.
Druzies are said to aid in balancing and increasing energy and is believed to enhance natural extrasensory perception abilities. |
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Title: What causes tarnishingCopper and silver are fairly unreactive metals, that do not react with ordinary acids, and do not readily react with oxygen. Both metals retain a fairly high polish, with no tarnishing, in many environments.
Tarnish is a layer of corrosion that forms over copper, brass, silver, aluminum, and other semi-reactive metals as they undergo oxidation. It is analogous to rust, but with a slower rate of occurrence. Tarnish is mainly caused by chemicals in the air, such as sulfur. It often appears as a usually dull, gray or black film or coat over metal.
Tarnish is removed either by employing another chemical reaction to dissolve the tarnished surface, or by using a mild abrasive to actually scrape away the discoloured compound on the metal to expose the underlying metal again. Ordinarily, such cleaning processes remove very little of the original metal. |
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