A new technology creates beautiful diamonds from Human Ashes called ‘Memorial Diamonds’
For a grieving friend or relative, nothing can be more comforting than having a beautiful memorial like a ‘Memorial Diamond’ which has the essence of their deceased loved ones.
Keeping an urn of ashes at home, or creating a memorial rock enclosing the ashes are some of the great ways to let family members feel close to the loved ones they have lost. But such memorials are not mobile or convenient to be carried along when it is needed the most. Like at family member’s wedding or at a college convocation, when the loved ones are missed the most.
This new technology that can create a beautiful diamond from human ashes has therefore come as a blessing for us all. It not only ensures the deceased loved ones are never forgotten, but also presents a unique way people can celebrate their loved one’s life even after they are gone.
A customer named Glynis (63 years old retired Personal Assistant), created a memorial diamond from ashes of her late husband, John. She was so delighted to see the diamond that she put it into her ring. She said, “I couldn’t be happier. When my husband came back to me, I didn’t feel as lonely. I feel that my husband and I are one again and we will be staying together forever.”
This technology was introduced by a team of scientists in Switzerland over a decade ago. They extracted ‘Carbon and Nitrogen’ element-mass from human ashes, which was purified and compressed into diamonds. They created naturally colored diamonds at first, which was due to the impurities of Nitrogen element in carbon mixture. But if Nitrogen is also filtered out, purely colorless diamonds are created.
The concentration of Carbon (C) into human body is 18% and Nitrogen (N) accounts for 3% of complete body mass. This amount is further reduced when the body turns into ashes. But even with this concentration, only 200gms of ashes is all that is required to develop a beautiful small sized memorial diamond.
The process of extracting Carbon from ashes is called ‘Carbon Purification’ that takes approximately 5000 minutes per sample. It filters out 99.99% (4N purity) Carbon, by reducing impurities to 1/500 of original impurity content. It is so pure and dense that even the air atoms are excluded from the powder, such as water and oxygen.
Crystallization of powdered carbon into a synthetic diamond is not a new technology though. It was first successfully experimented in 1954 by Dr H. Tracy Hall and his team at General Electric. They used powdered carbon element and crystallized it into a diamond by re-creating the natural environment of High Pressure and High Temperature (HPHT) that is essential for development of strong Carbon bonds. And based on this revolutionary invention, scientists in Switzerland started developing diamonds from carbon obtained from human ashes as well.
In the early 2000s, LONITE AG was amongst those few companies based in Switzerland who incorporated the study of these two researches and used the latest hi-tech equipment to manufacture 100% genuine diamonds from human ashes. They were also pioneer in commercializing the idea of memorial diamonds across the world.
But with the rising popularity of this service and greater demand across the world, many more companies have evolved over the last decade. And even new forms of Memorial Diamonds are being produced at different parts of world.
It is now much difficult for a consumer to differentiate a truly authentic service provider from a fake supplier. The diamonds created from human ashes are optically same as the natural diamonds. Therefore, it is hard for any person to differentiate if the diamond is synthetic or natural.
Typically after receiving a diamond, the purity can be verified through any local gemological institute, just as you do when buying a natural diamond from jeweler store. But to avoid the misfortune of getting involved with a fake service provider, losing money and also bearing the pain of being cheated on the name of your deceased loved ones, it is recommended to check the authenticity of the supplier in advance.
An authentic manufacturer of memorial diamonds must be able to present a license from either one of these institutes: Gemological Institute of America (GIA) or International Gemological Institute (IGI). And apart from these licenses, the manufacturer should also be willing to provide a purity certificate of diamond at time of delivery. This can be cross checked for accuracy by any local or international Gemological Institute.
