Treasure to Trash

Did you know that the diamonds are slowly being converted to graphite? This is a very-very slow process but undoubtedly exists. Graphite is the most stable form of carbon and has no special value. Diamond is extremely valuable and the second most stable but needs high pressure to remain as it is. Diamonds on (or near) the surface are not under the pressure needed so an unnoticeably slow conversion occurs.

Diamond is the hardest natural material known having extreme resistance to scratching. But it is not tough at all so don't try your hammer on it. If you insist on destroy your diamond then the most spectacular - and nevertheless a very expensive - method is to heat it to more than 800 degree Celsius where it converts to graphite quickly enough to observe.

The largest diamond found on Earth was the Cullinan, in 1905, which weighed 3,106 carats. But this is not the largest one we know about. In 2008, scientists discovered that a star, namely the BPM 37093, which is located 50 light years away from Earth has a diamond core 2,500 mile wide weighting approximately ten billion trillion trillion carats.

Wake up early

Did you know that the first alarm clock of the United States could only ring at 4 AM? It was created by Levi Hutchins in 1787 in order to wake him for his job. The French inventor Antoine Redier patented the first adjustable alarm clock, more than half a century later, in 1847. The alarm clock was invented in the Ottoman Empire almost 300 years earlier, in 1559, by Taqi al-Din. He described it in his book The Brightest Stars for the Construction of Mechanical Clocks.

The production of the alarm clocks in the US ceased during the World War 2 as the factories were converted over to war work, but they were one of the first items to resume manufacture for civilian use after 2 years in November 1944. By that time, a severe shortage of alarm clocks had developed which caused serious problems in critical jobs due to late arrivals.

Can without opener

Did you know that the can opener was invented 48 years after the can? The first tin can was made in 1810 by a french inventor Nicolas Appert, who won the 12,000 franc reward Napoleon Bonaparte offered for a practical method of food preservation for armies on the march. He didn't think of the problem of opening it so the French soldiers had to use chisels, knives or rocks to cut out the rather thick metal.

The first cans were sealed with lead soldering which sometimes led to lead poisoning. But this was not the only drawback of early canning. The method of pasteurisation was unknown for some more 100 years therefore microbes in the food also caused diseases.