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From
another mine in Ouro Preto, they were also heating the natural browner
imperial topaz to a refined bubble-gum pink, which was acceptable
because the pink color was stable and greatly improved the unfavorable
brownish tone. It would be very interesting to know how many billion
dollars of blue topaz have been sold since the irradiation of white
topaz was discovered in the 1970's. It may be just the tip of the
iceberg for the profits this topaz mistress will make for you, considering
the high-tech advancements since the dawn of this millennium, such
as Diffused Topaz and Mystic topaz.
Brazilians
and Americans used transparent white topaz to irradiate with cobalt,
thereby miraculously transforming it to light blue topaz. It quickly
became a staple in jewelry manufacturing and merchadising, selling
multi -millions of carats per year.
Next,
someone from California found that irradiating the same white topaz
with a linear accelerator, instead of cobalt, produced extraordinarily
dazzling shades of sky-blue.
NOTE:
The irradiation of white topaz, unlike the straw-color turning to
golden, was more than accepted. It was welcome! Because the changed
color was 100% stable and satisfied a fashion requirement for blue
gemstones, such as aquamarine, at a very affordable price.
Then
the British, and soon Americans, were using nuclear reactors for
neutron irradiation to produce dark sapphire-blue,
christened London-Blue Topaz. the legitimacy for this process was
a grey area, as the government became involved vis-a-vis health
concerns of the citizenry. When it was shown that safe and sound
release-criteria could be satisfactorily demonstrated and proved,
fashion trends triumphed because the saturated blue hue fulfilled
the female craving for sapphire at a mere fraction of the price.
On the
heels of the government, lawyers soon became involved with topaz's
miraculous mistress when some more Californians discovered the combination
of linear accelerator and neutron irradiation created the extraordinarily
scintillating and dazzling color that was baptized Swiss Blue. It
was patentable! Was it the beginning of the beginning, or the beginning
of the end for Topaz?
As you
will see, it was a new beginning for topaz's established seductive
mistress, technology. She went High-Tech! In fact, topaz's new color-enhancement,
modus operand i is going so High-Tech that it ALL requires being
patened immediately upon its discovery and development. This, so
these small mirables do not take the price-collapse path of CZ.
It is
debatable who was first to discover this new irradiation blend,
but it was certainly a Californian. one group, Natural Arts called
it "New Blue", but never talked to a lawyer about it.
The other group, Mineral Sciences, didn't give it a special name,
but patented the precess and forbade other dealers from duplicating
it. New Blue was soon marketed through Golay Buchel, who trademarked
the name, Swiss Blue Topaz . At that time, Swiss Blue was selling
wholesale for $ 5.00/ct. Within 3 years, regardless of Mineral Sciences'
patent, other dealers were learing the secret and producing the
same color overseas without legal penalty. Before long, Swiss Blue
was wholesaling for less than $ 2.00/ct. |
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