Testing a gemstone on a refractometer prism, when the stone has a greater refractive index than the measuring prism of the device, or higher than the refractive index of immersion liquid used for optical contact, the scale of refractometer remains dark an
The National Association of Goldsmith (N.A.G.) was established in 1894 to serve and support the Jewellery Industry of Great Britain and Ireland. The Association promotes high professional standards among its membership to inspire consumer confidence and t
The most commonly used ten standard scale of relative hardness of minerals. The scale is expressed in numbers ranging from 1 through 10: (1) talc, (2) gypsum, (3) calcite, (4) fluorite, (5) apatite, (6) orthoclase, (7) quartz, (8) topaz, (9) corundum, (10
The scientific study of minerals; their formation, occurrence, chemical composition, physical properties, and their classification. Oryctognosy and oryctology are obsolete terms.
A loose and inexact term that may be to define: usually homogeneous inorganic substance of definite physical properties and more or less chemical composition, which occur naturally in the earth, and usually possess a crystalline structure, which frequentl
Any rock, which has been derived from pre-existing rocks by mineralogical, chemical composition, textural and structural changing, essentially in the solid state due to processes operating in the earth's crust of heat or intense pressure, shearing stress,
A naturally occurring molten or semi-molten material in suspension, with dissolved gases, generated within or beneath the earth's crust and capable of intrusion and extrusion. Magma, which is extruded on the surface of the earth is called lava.
The emission of certain visible wavelengths of light from a substance other than thermal process, which are used as diagnostic determination of gemstones. It is caused by the emission of photons, when an exited atom within the substance returns to the gro
In optics, the reduction of the light intensity in transmission through an absorbing substance or in reflection from a surface, in crystals, minerals and gems. Absorption may vary with wavelengths of vibration in the direction of the transmitted light or