Ruby
See also: Ruby (homonymy)
The ruby is the red variety of the mineral family Corindon; she is used in Joaillerie and is classified like Precious stone.
Its color is caused mainly by the presence of oxide of chromium (the other varieties of corundum are called Saphir). It is a very rare invaluable stone.
The ruby has a hardness of 9 on the scale of hardness Mohs. Only the Diamond and the Moissanite have a higher hardness, which is of 10 on the Mohs scale of hardness.
The commercial value of the rubies depends on several factors: the size ( volume), the color, purity and the size ( cutting ). All the natural rubies have inclusions; only the artificial synthetic rubies can give the impression to be perfect. More these inclusions are rare and negligible, more the stone has value. It is, with diamonds of color, the invaluable stone which can reach the highest values.
Extraction
One extracts the ruby in Africa, Asia and Australia and in certain American states such as the Montana and the South Carolina, but one finds some especially with the Myanmar (90% of the worldwide production), with the Sri Lanka and in Thailand.India was regarded a long time as the traditional ground of the rubies. The Indian literature shows of it a knowledge important and varied, collected and passed from generation to generation during more than two millenia. The term of “corundum” itself, that we use nowadays, is derived from the word Sanskrit “kuruvinda”. In language sanscrite, the ruby is called “ratnaraj” whose translation would be “King of the Invaluable Stones”.
One should not confuse the ruby with the Spinelle (two minerals being sometimes present in the same geological formations.).
The largest layer of ninety has Mong Hsu in the North-East of Myanmar.Au beginning, one did not think that their stones can be used in jewelry. The crystals resulting from Mong Hsu are indeed two-tone in a natural state: a center noirâtre and external walls of a bright red. But when it was discovered that a heat treatment made disappear the black from the center and that only remained the red of the periphery, the rubies of Mong Hsu found an outlet on the market of the jewelry.
The balas ruby , mentioned by Marco Polo, are originating in the Badakhchan, mountainous province of the extreme North-East of the Afghanistan.
Synthesis
In 1902, French Auguste Verneuil produced a synthetic ruby by aluminum oxide powder fusion with a red dye.
Uses
Like all the invaluable stones, the ruby is used in the jewelry.In addition, thanks to its low coefficient of friction and its very great wear resistance, the synthetic ruby is largely used in the clock industry like mitigating for the pivots. Small pieces of ruby were also used in the analogical multimeters in order to have a variable component with less possible friction, sources of error during the reading of these multimeters.
The first Laser with ruby was built in 1960 and this technology was employed in industry since 1965.
Symbolic system
The Noces of ruby symbolize the 35 years of Mariage in the French folklore. This invaluable stone symbolizes July.
Simple: Ruby Zh-yue: 紅寶石
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