Synthetic Sapphire Boule by TomDart

Photography • Science/Medical • posted on Apr 16, 2008

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Description

This is manmade synthetic sapphire, used often for crystals on high end and pricy watches. The material is quite hard and scratch resistant. Boule is the name of the crystalline structure of manmade crystals formed by the flame fusion process. This colorless manmade sapphire is huge compared to normal and was grown in the lab many years aqo, perhaps a "can we do it" thing. Great Grandma's ruby may be manmade! I hope not but is it possible since this method is quite old. Aluminum Oxide is the stuff of sapphires. Melted in powder form to grow into a crystalline form is amazing. The melting point of the material is 2000C or 3632F. This boule is 26.7cm long (10.5 inches) and about 8.3cm diameter (3.25 inches). It weighs right at 5 kgs or 11 pounds. Sapphire is the same basic ingredient of rubies, aluminum oxide, known as corundum. Trace elements determine the color and whether a natural gem is one of the muliple colors of sapphre or is a ruby. Today, many inexpensise simulated and synthetic gemstones are made this way. Simulated is some other material while synthetic means the lab grown material is the same components as what mother earth makes with the same crystalline characteristics. Tests determine if natural or lab grown. Lab grown materials play a significant part in industry. The link tells of the process of flame fusion, only one of the methods used today to grow crystalline materials. http://gemologyproject.com/wiki/index.php?title=Flame_fusion This is not really a gallery image but posted for those who might find an interest.

Comments (13)

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amlondono

8:49PM | Wed, 16 April 2008

Very interesting information , splendid capture ( Thanks for the link ) Ana

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Mousson

9:28PM | Wed, 16 April 2008

Fantastic !!!!!!!

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timtripp

9:46PM | Wed, 16 April 2008

thanks!

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lizzibell

10:23PM | Wed, 16 April 2008

nice capture...

MrsLubner

10:30PM | Wed, 16 April 2008

This is a knock out image. The information is awesome. I had emeralds and rubies that I inherited and I learned alot about them then. Seems it is very rare to find a natural one without inclusions. I thought mine were perfect but they were flawed. Not by much but there still were minute cracks under close scrutany. I love all the beautiful colored gems. I don't even mind if they are lab grown as long as they are colorful.

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magnus073

2:24AM | Thu, 17 April 2008

Superb image my friend and thank you so much for the explanation for us.

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durleybeachbum

3:18AM | Thu, 17 April 2008

Fascinating!!!

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SapUS59

6:15AM | Thu, 17 April 2008

fantastic image Tom and very interesting information, thanks for sharing !!

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flavia49

8:34AM | Thu, 17 April 2008

Interesting image and explanation!!!

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Janiss

12:20PM | Thu, 17 April 2008

Interesting information... a great capture Tom!

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LovelyPoetess

10:46PM | Thu, 17 April 2008

Neat stuff! Both the shot and the information. : )

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busi2ness

7:38AM | Sun, 20 April 2008

Amazing size of the crystal, I'd never have thought it possible. I am an electronics hobbyist too and had taken apart the components in which this is used but the crystals are minute compared to this.

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