Mechanical

Mechanical Toys
Inventive, well-crafted metal toys, powered by clockwork or some other simple mechanism, delighted Edwardian children and strongly attract the modern collector.

Mechanical Watch
A watch movement that uses gears and levers driven by a hand-wound spring.

Mechanical weathering is the breakdown of rock into particles without producing changes in the chemical composition of the minerals in the rock. Ice is the most important agent of mechanical weathering.

Mechanical cleaners
The most common mechanical cleaners are ultrasonic and steam cleaners. Ultrasonic cleaners feature two basic parts: a small motor and a cleaning tank.

mechanical rocker box A rough diamond recovery method where diamond bearing gravel is first run across a series of screens to separate the larger and smaller chunks. The larger pieces are crushed until they measure approximately 1.5 inches across.

mechanical
A watch whose movement is based on the vibrations of a mainspring that is wound by hand or automatically, by the movement of the wearer ...

MECHANICAL
A mechanical watch operates using a series of gears. A spring in the watch is wound to power the gears. A jeweled watch uses gems such as rubies at points of friction inside the "movement.

MECHANICAL WATCH
Watch in which the movement is powered by a mainspring, working in conjunction with a balance wheel. Most mechanical watches are wound by hand, except for automatic mechanical watches, which are wound every time you move your wrist.

Mechanical: Watches use a balance wheel for time measurement and a mainspring for power. They require manual winding.

Mechanical Methods
This month we are reviewing mechanical methods of cleaning and preparing mineral specimens. By mechanical we mean using force of some sort to remove unwanted minerals or encrustations.

Mechanical equipment used to stamp findings in the form of an electric press, foot press, hydraulic press, percussion press or screw press.
PREHNITE
Read more in our Gemstones & Minerals Glossary ...

A mechanical process of plating gold on another metal. This can be done by brazing, soldering, welding, etc. The plating must be at least 1/20th of the weight of the metal in the entire item.

A mechanical process done under considerable heat and pressure that permanently imprints a variety of unique grain effects into the leather surface.
Emerald ...

Jewlery mechanically plated with gold.
Enamel
Colored, opaque glassy material fused onto metal, pottery or glass.

A pin used to mechanically join components without heat or solder. The ends of the pin are spread to keep the parts from coming apart
rolling mill ...

Jewelry can be mechanically plated with gold in a variety of ways, including electroplated. Eventually, the gold plating wears away, but it depends on how often the item is worn and how thick the plating is.
Emerald ...

CONCRETIONS. Mechanical aggregation, or chemical union of particles of mineral forming balls or irregularly shaped nodules in strata of different material.

Gold filled: Mechanically-bonded (as opposed to electrolytically applied) sandwich consisting of base metal on the inside, and a gold alloy on the outside.

Automatic
A type of mechanical watch movement that is wound merely by the movement of the wearer's wrist. So long as the watch is worn daily, there is no need to wind it up.
Baguette
See Cuts.

Silver Filled - A mechanical bonding with a silver alloy of at least 92.5 percent fineness. The bonding must be equal to at least one-twentieth of the metal in the article. This can also be called silver overlay, but never silver plate.
...

ElectroplatedJewelry can be mechanically plated with gold in a variety of ways, including electroplated. Eventually, the gold plating wears away, but it depends on how often the item is worn and how thick the plating is.

abrasion A form of mechanical weathering that occurs when loose fragments or particles of rocks and minerals that are being transported, as by water or air, collide with each other or scrape the surfaces of stationary rocks.

Types of watches MECHANICALS are the traditional "wind-up" watches. They work because of a mainspring inside the watch which the wearer winds by turning the crown on the side of the watch.

Sediments and the particulate mineral matter which compose sedimentary rocks are derived by the two different means of mechanical and chemical weathering.

One of the important principles for mechanical constructions and especially moving parts in mechanisms is to keep it simple. One usually begins with a far too complex design and in order to get something functional one has to boil it down quite a bit.

(3) An industry product or part thereof on which there has been affixed on all significant surfaces by soldering, brazing, welding, or other mechanical means, ...

Types of findings (box clasp, friction posts and nuts, mechanical pin, spring ring, etc.)
Settings (6 prong platinum head, yellow gold bezel, bead set, etc.)
Measurements (length, width, thickness) ...

Gold Filled: (Also "Goldfilled", or "gold-filled", abbreviated g.f.) A piece of jewelry with a layer of gold mechanically applied to the surface of a base metal, (like brass or copper), ...

(Also "Goldfilled", or "gold-filled", abbreviated g.f.) A piece of jewelry with a layer of gold mechanically applied to the surface of a base metal, (like brass or copper), ...

This steam cleaner was designed by mechanical engineers for the jewelry business. The Blitz Professional Jewelry Steam Cleaner comes with a foot pedal for easy operation.

For example, a watch with mechanical movement (first type of wristwatch; introduced in 1910) uses a spinning balance wheel powered by a tightly wound spring.

The Mohs' scale arranges minerals according to their degree of resistance to mechanical scratching of their surfaces. The scale ranges from one to ten.

Several decades ago, mechanical spring balances or beam balances were state of the art, today, however, virtually all gems are weighed on electronic scales.

Gold-filled jewelry consists of a layer of 10K gold or better mechanically bonded to the surfaces of a base (non-precious) metal. This layer of 10K gold must be a minimum of 1/20th of the total metal weight to be called gold filled.

The metal added to gold to make an alloy is varied to control the color and mechanical properties of the alloy. Frequently added metals are Silver, Copper, Palladium, Nickel and seldom small quantities of Aluminum, Zinc, Iron or Manganese.

The danger in the word is that it can give people the idea that a crystal is a mechanical object to which you do a mechanical thing.

The process in which a layer of carat gold alloy is mechanically bonded to another metal.

Fracture-, cleavage- and tension-cracks can be enlarged and expanded by external mechanical stress (for instance during the setting or while removing a stone from its setting, exposure to blows or even taps, sudden temperature chances) and detract ...

Functional jewelry findings are used in making a piece of jewelry that serves to accomplish some sort of mechanical functions such as attaching, linking or joining.

Gold Filled (GF): A process by which a relatively thick layer of gold is mechanically applied to a base metal and fused by heat and pressure. The layer must be at least 10K gold and 5% of the total weight of the item.

Gold-filled refers to a layer of gold mechanically bonded to a base (non-precious) metal; the gold content must be at least 1/20th of the total weight of the piece.

Sapphires are mined heavily in gem producing countries, by traditional and mechanical methods. Even with heavy mining the rate of return on fine sapphires is exponentially less than the production and availability of most other gem stones.

Bort: Diamonds fit for industrial / mechanical purposes only.
Bourse: French, meaning an exchange or meeting place where merchants transact business. The word is often used for a diamond dealers club or organization.

Etching - In the mechanical process, a design is masked off from the rest of the crystal or glass item. The piece is then "sandblasted" (acid is applied), resulting in the finished design.

gold has been mechanically bonded to another metal (usually a base metal). This layer usually constitutes AT LEAST 1/20th of the total weight of the metal in the piece. Items are marked G.F. preceded by the karat fineness of the veneer.

Tumbled stones were finished in a tumbler, a mechanical device that smoothes and rounds the surfaces of stones. Tumbled stones look very much like stones that have been in a fast-flowing river or stream for a long time.
TUMBLER ...

The first watches were mechanical, with a balance wheel and mainspring. They had to be wound to keep time. Most watches today use a quartz crystal and a battery for power - they don't require winding.

Gold Filled - Gold filled refers to the mechanical process of applying two thin gold sheets to core metal such as nickel. To qualify as "gold filled" the amount of gold must be at least 1/20 of the total weight.

Made of base metal, usually brass, with 1/20 (or more) of the material thickness being kart gold mechanically bonded to the base metal. The gold layer is usually 50 to 100 times as thick as on a plated item.

The same as stamping, except that is done by a mechanical process rather than by hand.
From: An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson ...

Gold plated - A thin coating of electroplated or mechanically plated gold on top of another metal
Gold tone - Coloured to look like gold
Golden finish - A finish that looks like gold ...

A layer of karat gold, platinum or silver is mechanically bonded
to a base metal, usually brass or steel.
Gold filled is marked with the gold percentage by weight and the karat value.

Even the use of diamonds in mechanical ways is very completely gone into and also details in regard to cutting diamonds are very completely given. It is to be hoped that an English translation will soon become available.

To give them the necessary mechanical properties and a wishful color nonferrous metals are brought into. Thus, we get different alloys, for example, that of gold with silver and copper, sometimes with palladium, nickel, zinc and cadmium.

ROLLED GOLD - The process in which a layer of carat gold alloy is mechanically bonded to another metal.
SCRAP GOLD - The broad term for any gold which is sent back to a refiner or processor for recycling ...

Lost Cast Waxing: A process of casting whereby a wax model is encased in an investment similar to plastic, the investment is agitated mechanically or put into a vacuum to remove air bubbles and placed in an oven where the wax is burned off, ...

It is strongly pyroelectric (temperature changes give it an electrical charge) and piezoelectric (mechanical stress on its crystals creates electricity, much like quartz).

Loose surface deposit of usually waterborne sand, clays, pepples as well as gravel and boulder, in which minerals resistant to weathering and mechanical transport, such as gemstones and precious metals, ...

Sunstones are mined from the surface from partially decomposed rock with a pick and shovel, or mechanically with bull dozers and other equipment. Shallow pits are dug to retrieve the rough material which is mixed in with basalt rock.

Phonons are a quantum mechanical version of a special type of vibrational motion, known as normal modes in classical mechanics, in which each part of a lattice oscillates with the same frequency.

See also: Rough, Stone, Jewel, Metal, Color