fluorescence
Some diamonds phosphoresce, that is, if they are brightly illuminated either by daylight or artificial light and are then taken into a darkened room, they continue to give out a glow which gradually fades away. Such phosphorescence is not a special property of diamond alone for it is also shown by many other crystals. It is closely connected with impurities in the crystals and is not a property of very highly purified materials. . . .
Some diamonds when rubbed in the dark will emit a glow, and this, too is very closely related to phosphorescence. It is typical also of many other crystals carrying impurities. . . .
Many diamonds when illuminated with invisible ultra-violet light give out a visible glow. This is called fluorescence and it leads to the emission of a blue or a yellow-green light.
—S. Tolansky, from The History and Use of Diamond, 1962.
koh-i-noor
It was firmly believed in India that he who owned Koh-i-Noor would rule the world. When the Persian, Nadir Shah, sacked Delhi in 1739 this diamond became one of his objectives. The tale is told that the defeated Mogul hid the diamond in his turban. Nadir, learning of this, invited the conquered Mogul to a feast and then forced him to exchange turbans. The moment the Moguls turban was in his hand, Nadir unwound it and the diamond fell out. At which moment Nadir is said to have cried out, Mountain of Light! and this is the legend of how the diamond acquired its name.
—S. Tolansky, from The History and Use of Diamond, 1962.
brilliant and quick
The days raced after one another, brilliant and quick like the flashes of a lighthouse, and the nights, eventful and short, resembled fleeting dreams.
—Joseph Conrad, from The Nigger of the Narcissus.
scintillating light
One gem there is whose scintillating light
Too strong temptation! Captivates her sight!
—the Roman satirist-historian Juvenal, quoted in The Book of Diamonds by Joan Dickinson, 1965.
ringo
Ringo, the drummer in the Beatles quartet who took his name from his passion for rings, summed up the American dream of the sixties: If you want to give me a ring, he told a television audience candidly, I prefer diamonds.
—Joan Dickinson, from The Book of Diamonds, 1965.
diamonds one day, emeralds the next
The man who was probably the greatest diamond collector of modern time, Diamond Jim Brady . . . had a different set of monogrammed jewelry for each day in the monthdiamonds one day, emeralds the next. . . . It was believed he owned more than twenty thousand diamonds all told, that sometimes he wore as many as $250,000 worth on a single day, and that he purchased another several thousand for the actress Lillian Russell.
—Joan Dickinson, from The Book of Diamonds, 1965.
a beam of purest white
When a ray of light passes through a well-cut diamond it is refracted through a large angle and consequently the colors of the spectrum becoming widely separated strike a spectatorss eye separately so that at one moment he sees a ray of vivid blue, at another, one of flaming scarlet or one of shining green while perhaps at the next instant a beam of purest white may be reflected in his direction.
—Marcel Tolkowsky, quoted in The Book of Diamonds by Joan Dickinson, 1965.
the crystalline revelator
The diamond is the crystalline Revelator of the achromatic white light of Heaven.
—Thomas H. Chivers, (18071858).
untamable
Diamond in the English, and Diamant in the French, are both synonymous with Adamant, which comes directly from the Greek . . . meaning literally the untamable, the unconquerable.
—Edwin Streeter, from The Great Diamonds of the World, 1882.
fair as the star
“Fair as the star that ushers in the morn,”
—origin unknown, found in reference to diamonds in The Great Diamonds of the World by Edwin Streeter, 1882. Anyone ever heard this line before