In the early 1950s, universities and chemical companies were engaged in the industrial Holy Grail quest of creating artificial diamonds--a product which would have numerous industrial applications and would bring vast fortunes to whomever first unlocked the process. In 1953, chemist H. Tracy Hall (on the right in the above photo) joined the diamond research team at General Electric for Project "Superpressure." GE was purchasing a $125,000 press in the hope that it could be used to make diamonds. Hall requested, but was refused, $1,000 and time in the lab to repair and retrofit an older and much cheaper alternative device which would use a different method to create the necessary intense heat and high pressures required to achieve the same goal.
Hall completed his device on his own time and at his own expense and tested it the GE labs during Christmas vacation in 1954. It worked, while the $125,000 press did not.
GE, as a result of Hall's accomplishment, proudly announced that it had made the first industrial diamonds and eagerly awaited for the profits to come pouring in. GE gave Hall a $25* savings bond as the reward for his efforts.
For further information on Mr. Hall, please click here.
For further information on Mr. Hall, please click here.
*Some sources indicate that it was actually only a $10 savings bond, but that denomination was available only to active duty U.S. military personnel during the war era.
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