| Geology: Carborundum, or silicon carbide is a man-made mineral invented in Pennsylvania by Edward Goodrich Acheson in 1890. The result of a failed attempt to create diamonds, carborundum was formed from electrically fusing a mixture of clay and carbon. Carborundum, used as an industrial abrasive, is hard enough to scratch glass. More recently it has been employed as a semiconductor. Silicon carbide, found in Arizona within a Canyon Diablo meteorite by Dr. Ferdinand Henri Moissan, has been named Moissanite. With a tetrahedral crystalline structure and an appearance similar to diamond, naturally occurring moissanite is rare. Gem quality moissanite is being manufactured and sold as a low cost alternative to natural diamonds. |
Anita's Beads of Wakefield, NH 