Amateur faceter Tom Herbst helps you expand your faceting horizons. You will learn about the optics and mathematics behind the magic of gemstones. Subsequent chapters on the properties and treatment of common gem materials will help you identify and make the most of your valuable rough.

Precast reinforced and prestressed concrete frames provide a high strength, stable, durable and robust solution for any multi-storey structure, and are widely regarded as a high quality, economic and architecturally versatile technology for the construction of multi-storey buildings. The resulting buildings satisfy a wide range of commercial and industrial needs. Precast concrete buildings behave in a different way to those where the concrete is cast in-situ, with the components subject to different forces and movements. These factors are explored in detail in the second edition of Multi-Storey Precast Concrete Framed Structures, providing a detailed understanding of the procedures involved in precast structural design. This new edition has been fully updated to reflect recent developments, and includes many structural calculations based on EUROCODE standards. These are shown in parallel with similar calculations based on British Standards to ensure the designer is fully aware of the differences required in designing to EUROCODE standards. Civil and structural engineers as well as final year undergraduate and postgraduate students of civil and structural engineering will all find this book to be thorough overview of this important construction technology.

A comprehensive dictionary of sacred and magical gem lore that draws on the rarest source texts of Antiquity and the Middle Ages • Reveals the healing and magical virtues of familiar gemstones, such as amethyst, emerald, and diamond, as well as the lore surrounding exotic stones such as astrios, a stone celebrated by ancient magicians • Examines bezoars (stones formed in animals’ bodies) and “magnets” that attract materials other than metal • Based on ancient Arabic, Greek, Jewish, and European sources, ranging from the observations of Pliny the Elder to extremely rare texts such as the Picatrix and Damigeron’s Virtue of Stones Our ancestors believed stones were home to sacred beings of power, entities that if properly understood and cultivated could provide people protection from ill fortune, envy, and witchcraft; grant invisibility and other magical powers; improve memory; and heal the sick from a wide variety of diseases. These benefits could be obtained by wearing the stone on a ring, bracelet, or pendant; through massage treatments with the stone; or by reducing the gem into a powder and drinking it mixed with water or wine. Drawing from a wealth of ancient Arabic, Greek, Jewish, and European sources--from the observations of Pliny the Elder to extremely rare texts such as the Picatrix and Damigeron’s Virtue of Stones--Claude Lecouteux provides a synthesis of all known lore for more than 800 stones. He includes such common examples as the emerald, which when engraved with the figure of a harpy holding a lamprey in its claws will banish panic and nightmares, and beryl, which when appropriately carved can summon water spirits or win its owner high renown, as well as more exotic stones such as astrios, a stone celebrated by ancient magicians and whose center glows like a star. Lecouteux also examines bezoars--stones formed in animals’ bodies--as well as “magnets” that attract materials other than iron, such as gold, flesh, cotton, or scorpions. This comprehensive dictionary of sacred and magical gem lore, drawn from the rarest sources of Antiquity and the Middle Ages, represents a one-of-a-kind resource for gem enthusiasts and magical practitioners alike.

Introductory text for beginning faceters. Learn the history, the terminology, the machines available, the parts of the machines and how to use them and learn to facet your first stone.

"This book contains everything the reader needs to know to facet gemstones expertly. Includes 22 beautiful cuts"--Amazon.com.

Describes the appearance, formation, physical properties and characteristics, mining, and cutting of precious, semiprecious, and synthetic gemstones.