Scientists first manufactured diamonds in laboratories in the 1950s, imitating the conditions under which diamonds were produced in nature. The diamonds produced were initially small and impure and so useful only in low-tech industrial products such as abrasives and lubricants. Since then, diamond manufacturing technology has progressed: the generation process has become more controlled, new methods have been invented, and better catalysts have been discovered. Diamonds grown in the lab are now cheaper than mined diamonds and have superior physical, optical, chemical, and electrical properties. Consequently, they dominate the industrial market. In the past decade, diamond manufacturing technology progressed so much that it is now possible to mass-produce jewelry-quality diamonds in the lab. These lab diamonds are cheaper and more beautiful than mined diamonds. A perfectly cut, flawless lab diamond costs a fraction of the price of a mined diamond of lesser quality.
Lab diamonds are a testament to the principle that what nature can do, man is capable of doing better.
I don't think that last statement is an universal principle, but let's leave that for another time.
The tradition that diamonds are an integral part of an engagement proposal is the result of a highly successful advertising campaign by the De Beers cartel. During the Great Depression, diamond sales slumped. De Beers responded by enlisting Hollywood actors and socialites in a campaign to associate diamond rings with marriage proposals, commissioning portraits of them showing off their new engagement rings, and by running ads showing happy young couples honeymooning above the now-famous slogan ‘A Diamond Is Forever’. In time, it also tried to persuade men that they would need to spend a fixed proportion of their income on a stone to win at love. One later advert, from the 1980s, was captioned ‘2 months’ salary showed the future Mrs Smith what the future would be like’.
So, how many months of salaries did you pay for your SO's diamond ring? Would you do it again with this information at hand?
Other little piece of trivia from this long but interesting article:
In the senseless bloodshed that characterized the French Revolution, Lavoisier, who had also been a tax farmer, was accused of adulterating tobacco and defrauding the state. He was guillotined on 8 May 1794.