history of South Sea pearl cultivation By David-John Turner

The history of South Sea pearl cultivation transformed the modern pearl industry.

South Sea pearls had been sourced from the silver-lipped and gold-lipped, 'Pinctada Maxima' oyster of Australia's waters since the dawn of time. For thousands of years, Aboriginal fishermen had dove for these naturally occurring South Sea pearl oysters using their meat, shell and pearls for trade and tribute. Unfortunately, as with all things precious, by the late 1800s the modern world had all but depleted Australia's natural South Sea pearl resource. However, off the north-eastern coast of Australia, a method was being unearthed that would not only revitalize Australia's South Sea pearl industry but pearl production the world-over.

The British marine biologist, William Saville-Kent, served two posts as Australia's Commissioner of Fisheries, one in Queensland and one in Western Australia. In 1891, while on Queensland's Thursday Island, Saville-Kent experimented with grafting one oyster's mantle tissue, inserted with a nucleus of shell, into another oyster's mantle. This caused the formation of a pearl sack which produced nacre covering the nucleus to form a spherical pearl.

Pioneering the technique, William Saville-Kent, acting as scientist and Commissioner freely passed the method onto other interested parties working in Australia's north-eastern pearl industry. At that time, Australia's pearl industry comprised of tens of thousands of people, including Aboriginal Australians, Europeans, Chinese, Malaysian and Japanese; amongst who were Tatsuhei Mise and Tokishi Nishikawa.

It should be noted that many cultivated pearl industry texts on the web wrongly credit the Japanese entrepreneurs Tatsuhei Mise, Tokishi Nishikawa and Mikimoto Kokichi, with the invention of the nucleated cultivation technique. To this day, William Saville-Kent is not officially recognized as the father of this procedure and the resulting cultivated round pearl.

In 1907, both Mise and Nishikawa applied for the patent of Saville-Kent's method, but realizing that they were now competing against each other they unified to patent and name it the 'Mise-Nishikawa' method. That same year, quite probably in search of sponsorship, Nishikawa wrote to Mikimoto Kokichi telling him of his discovery; "...I have found the cause of Japanese pearl formation, i.e. the reason why and how the pearl is produced in the tissue of the oyster..." (G.F Kunz: 'The Book of the Pearl' 1908).

In 1916, Mikimoto and Nishikawa joined forces and went into large scale production using Saville-Kent's original technique, using it to cultivate the Akoya 'Pinctada Fucata' pearl oyster. The implementation of this ground-breaking procedure marked the beginnings of a boom in Japan's pearl industry. By 1935 Japan was producing more than 10,000,000 cultured pearls every year.

Some Famous Diamonds

Star of Africa (Cullinan 1) This is the largest diamond in the world, at 530.20 carats. It is now in the Royal Scepter in the Tower of London. This diamond was cut from the 3,106-carat Cullinan—the largest diamond ever found. 

Kah-i-Nur: (Mountain of Light) This diamond has the oldest recorded history, since 1304. Originally, the legend is that the Mogul emperors possessed this diamond, but upon the breakup of the Mogul empire, the diamond made its way into India, and thence to Afghanistan, where it traveled back to India. There, the East India Company took it and presented it to Queen Victoria. 

Hope Diamond: This diamond is ironically named after 1830 purchaser Henry Thomas Hope. It is thought to be a part of the Blue Tavernier Diamond found in 1692. The Hope diamond was purchased by King Louis XIV of France (whose sad history many of us know). Stolen during the French Revolution, it surfaced in 1830 when Hope bought it. Hope’s son lost his fortune after inheriting the diamond, and it was sold to an American widow, Mrs. Edward McLean. After the purchase, her child was killed, her family broke up, the widow became destitute, and then committed suicide. When it came up for auction, potential buyers wouldn’t touch the diamond. It now resides in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. 

Blood Diamond

In some of the more politically unstable central African and west African countries, revolutionary groups have taken control of diamond mines, using proceeds from diamond sales to finance their operations. Diamonds sold through this process are known as conflict diamonds or blood diamonds. Major diamond trading corporations continue to fund and fuel these conflicts by doing business with armed groups.

In response to public concerns that their diamond purchases were contributing to war and human rights abuses in central Africa and West Africa, the United Nations, the diamond industry and diamond-trading nations introduced the Kimberley Process in 2002, which is aimed at ensuring that conflict diamonds do not become intermixed with the diamonds not controlled by such rebel groups, by providing documentation and certification of diamond exports from producing countries to ensure that the proceeds of sale are not being used to fund criminal or revolutionary activities. Although the Kimberley Process has been moderately successful in limiting the number of conflict diamonds entering the market, conflict diamonds smuggled to market continue to persist to some degree (approx. 2–3% of diamonds traded today are possible conflict diamonds[36]). According to the 2006 book The Heartless Stone, two major flaws still hinder the effectiveness of the Kimberley Process: the relative ease of smuggling diamonds across African borders and giving phony histories, and the violent nature of diamond mining in nations that are not in a technical state of war and whose diamonds are therefore considered "clean."[37]

The Canadian Government has setup a body known as Canadian Diamond Code of Conduct[38] to help authenticate Canadian diamonds. This is a very stringent tracking system of diamonds and helps protect the 'conflict free' label of Canadian diamonds.

Currently, gem production totals nearly 30 million carats (6,000 kg) of cut and polished stones annually, and over 100 million carats (20,000 kg) of mined diamonds are sold for industrial use each year, as are about 100,000 kg of synthesized diamond

DIamond Industry

The market for industrial-grade diamonds operates much differently from its gem-grade counterpart. Industrial diamonds are valued mostly for their hardness and heat conductivity, making many of the gemological characteristics of diamond, including clarity and color, mostly irrelevant. This helps explain why 80% of mined diamonds (equal to about 100 million carats or 20,000 kg annually), unsuitable for use as gemstones, are destined for industrial use. In addition to mined diamonds, synthetic diamonds found industrial applications almost immediately after their invention in the 1950s; another 3 billion carats (600 metric tons) of synthetic diamond is produced annually for industrial use. Approximately 90% of diamond grinding grit is currently of synthetic origin.

The dominant industrial use of diamond is in cutting, drilling, grinding, and polishing. Most uses of diamonds in these technologies do not require large diamonds; in fact, most diamonds that are gem-quality except for their small size, can find an industrial use. Diamonds are embedded in drill tips or saw blades, or ground into a powder for use in grinding and polishing applications. Specialized applications include use in laboratories as containment for high pressure experiments (see diamond anvil cell), high-performance bearings, and limited use in specialized windows.

With the continuing advances being made in the production of synthetic diamonds, future applications are beginning to become feasible. Garnering much excitement is the possible use of diamond as a semiconductor suitable to build microchips from, or the use of diamond as a heat sink in electronics.

The boundary between gem-quality diamonds and industrial diamonds is poorly-defined and partly depends on market conditions (for example, if demand for polished diamonds is high, some suitable stones will be polished into low-quality or small gemstones rather than being sold for industrial use). Within the category of industrial diamonds, there is a sub-category comprising the lowest-quality, mostly opaque stones, which are known as bort or 'boart'.

A Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond (from the ancient Greek ἀδάμας, adámas) is the allotrope of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in an isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice. After graphite, diamond is the second most stable form of carbon. Its hardness and high dispersion of light make it useful for industrial applications and jewelry. It is the hardest known naturally occurring mineral. It is possible to treat regular diamonds under a combination of high pressure and high temperature to produce diamonds that are harder than the diamonds used in hardness gauges.[2] Presently, only aggregated diamond nanorods, a material created using ultrahard fullerite (C60) is confirmed to be harder, although other substances such as cubic boron nitride, rhenium diboride and ultrahard fullerite itself are comparable.

Diamonds are specifically renowned as a material with superlative physical qualities; they make excellent abrasives because they can be scratched only by other diamonds, borazon, ultrahard fullerite, rhenium diboride, or aggregated diamond nanorods, which also means they hold a polish extremely well and retain their lustre. Approximately 130 million carats (26,000 kg (57,000 lb)) are mined annually, with a total value of nearly USD $9 billion, and about 100,000 kg (220,000 lb) are synthesized annually.[3]

The name diamond is derived from the ancient Greek ἀδάμας (adámas), "unbreakable, untamed", from ἀ- (a-), "un-" + δαμάω (damáō), "to overpower, to tame"[4]. They have been treasured as gemstones since their use as religious icons in ancient India and usage in engraving tools also dates to early human history.[5][6] Popularity of diamonds has risen since the 19th century because of increased supply, improved cutting and polishing techniques, growth in the world economy, and innovative and successful advertising campaigns. They are commonly judged by the “four Cs”: carat, clarity, color, and cut.

Roughly 49% of diamonds originate from central and southern Africa, although significant sources of the mineral have been discovered in Canada, India, Russia, Brazil, and Australia. They are mined from kimberlite and lamproite volcanic pipes, which can bring diamond crystals, originating from deep within the Earth where high pressures and temperatures enable them to form, to the surface. The mining and distribution of natural diamonds are subjects of frequent controversy such as with concerns over the sale of conflict diamonds (aka blood diamonds) by African paramilitary groups.