Moissanite Through The Years

The history of natural Moissanite can be traced back to the late 1800's

, over fifty thousand years ago, a meteorite crashed into the Arizona desert creating what is now known as "Meteor Crater." Fragments of this meteorite were scattered across the desert. Among these fragments was a brilliant secret hidden, and waiting to be discovered. The man who later became a Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Henri Moissan discovered natural silicon carbide in Arizona, while analyzing part of the Diablo Canyon meteorite, in 1893. In these fragments Dr. Moissan discovered minute quantities of a shimmering new mineral, with fire and brilliance never before seen on earth. After extensive research, Dr. Moissan concluded that this mineral was made of silicon carbide. The mineral name for silicon carbide, Moissanite, was given in Dr. Moissan's honor in 1905.

Only after years of research a breakthrough discovery enabled the production of moissanite crystals large enough to produce an uncommon combination of science and art. Naturally occurring Moissanite is dark green or black, found in very limited quantities and is not commercially viable. Unfortunately, the supply of natural moissanite wasn't large enough even to create a pair of earrings. Later on the Cree Research Inc. founded in 1987 from North Carolina discovered a process of taking the minerals silicon and carbon, evaporating them into one compound, and then growing them into a crystal. This crystal is cut into the final Moissanite jewel, either nearly colorless, like a diamond, or in various shades of green.

Near colorless, Moissanite has physical properties very similar to that of a diamond. For example, Moissanite tests positive for diamond on conventional thermal probes. Synthetic Moissanite is doubly refractive. This means that a ray of light passing through the stone is slowed, bent and split in two as it passes through it. To the average eye Moissanite seems virtually as beautiful as a diamond, although its color is lower. At first sight, both inside and on the surface, Moissanite's brilliance seems to be softer and cloudier. The color spectrum effects in Moissanite are more spread out. On the hardness scale, Moissanite is only slightly softer than diamond, registering 9+ on the Mohs scale, as opposed to a diamond's 10.

One of the principals involved with Cree founded a company named C3 in 1995. Later on it was renamed Charles and Colvard. It was this company that for three years developed the process of creating synthetic Moissanite and the following manufacturing of the stones, before hitting the consumer market with the latest "diamond substitute" in 1998.

by: Neil Hockman

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