Diamonds from the dead (4 photos) Bashny.Net

Maybe you and I'm surprised, but out of human ashes are usually obtained diamonds blue.



Willy thirty-three is the founder and CEO of Algordanza - a kind of funeral home, located in the beautiful city of Domat (Ems), in western Switzerland.

The company Algordanza (name in Romansh language means "memory") is one of the leaders in the production of so-called "memorial diamonds." "If you want to get away from this life chic is Algordanza, using the latest technology, is ready to transform your ashes into a synthetic diamond." The cost of this conversion varies from 5 to 22 thousand dollars, depending on the size of the diamond, you want to be. The price includes the packaging of your shining remains in the "noble wooden box." But here your relatives have a choice - leave you in your noble box, or paste in a ring or pendant to always carry with them.

Every year 850 urns containing the ashes come in laboratory Algordanza, a few years later to come out in the form of precious stones. Lack of land and growing populations put into question the future of the traditional model of the cemetery. It is possible that in the future the solution of this question will be a sort of fancy "jewelry tomb».

To learn more about it, we interviewed most Rinaldo Willy.

How did you come up with the idea to turn the corpses into diamonds?
It hit me ten years ago when I was a student at the Faculty of Economics. One of my teachers gave me an article to read Russian scientist; it was about the production of synthetic diamonds to be used in the semiconductor industry. The article explains how these diamonds can be made from the ashes, and I misunderstood it, deciding what is meant human ashes - and in fact spoke of vegetable ash.

I liked this idea, and I asked the teacher to give me more information on the process of transformation of human ashes into diamonds. He immediately told me that I misunderstood. However, he decided that my mistake is quite interesting, and contacted the author of the article, which appeared machines for the production of diamonds in Switzerland. Together, we have begun to create something from which subsequently appeared Algordanza.



A memorial diamond ring is inserted into

What you seem so exciting in the idea of ​​turning ashes into a diamond?
Diamonds are precious and pure. They are radically different from today's cemeteries crowded tombs and abandoned, where you do not feel a real connection with the dead. I was inspired by the idea of ​​turning the dead bodies into something pleasing the eye, what you can touch. I also like the fact that the diamond is saved and can be passed from generation to generation. Diamonds can not be taken, and sprinkle in some point, as is the case with the ash from the cremation.

In other words, you think that "diamonds are forever».
I do not like this word as "eternity" affects the religious sphere. We prefer the word «unzerbrechlich», which in German means "indestructible." Our diamonds - indestructible tools of memory, but, ultimately, it is people from the close of a person depends to his memory remained alive.

Let's try to understand the technology. What process converts ash human synthetic diamond?
The entire process takes place here in Switzerland. After the person cremated, his ashes we receive. In accordance with the laws of his country, either we get all the ashes in a urn, or in two urns sent at different times. It is necessary to avoid the loss of all the dust - for example, in an accident.

We process the ashes certain chemical agents to remove all the carbon. Then, the carbon is heated to high temperatures and converted into graphite. Finally, we put the carbon into a machine that reproduces the existing conditions in the bowels of the earth where natural diamonds are formed thousands of years: a very high pressure and temperature is about fifteen hundred degrees Celsius. After a few weeks or months we get a diamond.



Chemical Laboratory, where death produces diamonds.

How big are the diamonds that you can create in your lab?
As a rule, they comprise four carats in its raw form, and one carat after cutting. Sometimes diamonds are obtained in 1, 6 and 1, 8 carats, but that in exceptional cases.

Why do some people of diamonds produced are larger than others?
Usually the size of a diamond depends on how long we keep the graphite in the machine, the longer the process, the more the diamond. But it also depends on the quality of ash. For example, if a person wore or other dental prostheses, or taking certain medications, his ashes will be less clean and the quality of the diamond will be worse.

Such factors may also affect the color of the stone. For example, from the ashes of people who were exposed to chemotherapy, the diamonds are usually obtained lighter. We still do not know what determines the color of the stone: our diamonds are usually blue - due to the presence of traces of boron in humans, but every man becomes a completely unique diamond from crystal clear to almost black.

What is the difference between a real diamond and one of your stones?
Our diamonds are real. They have all the physical and chemical properties of diamond. Obviously, synthetic diamonds are less valuable than natural since they are man. But you will not be able to distinguish natural from our diamonds with the naked eye. It is not capable of even a jeweler. The only way to distinguish between them - a chemical screening. Only by gemologist can determine whether the stone is created artificially.



Diamonds from the dust indistinguishable from ordinary stones.

Is it possible to make more than one diamond from one person to losing a diamond, do not ever lose a loved one?
Yes, this is possible because for diamond requires only two grams of carbon. In fact, some of our customers, especially in Japan, are asked to do a lot of memorial diamonds from the ashes of one, one for each family member.

Theoretically, depending on the quantity and quality of the ash, we could get 50 diamonds from the ashes of one person. But in practice, our best result so far - the nine of diamonds.

Why do people even resort offers?
In many cases, they choose not to, and their relatives, usually mothers or wives who come to us. The main reason that people called us, a desire to perpetuate a piece of the deceased. But there are those who want to become a diamond during his lifetime. Often they are people who know that they will die in the near future, for example, from an incurable disease.