Diamonds-Engagement Rings
Synthetic Diamonds
While General Electric is credited for producing the first synthetic diamonds in the 1950s, a Swedish electrical company ASEA had been researching a similar process.
Everyone knew they had to find a way to break the atomic bonds of graphite in order to simulate the earths process for creating diamonds.
And that required a unique combination.
- High Pressure - over 80,000 atmospheres
- High Temperature - 2,000 degrees Celsius
- Time - the ASEA process took one hour
Baltzar von Platen had invented the refrigerator so he was hired to oversee the secret project code named Quintus.
Using a unique design so dangerous that scientists had to leave the laboratory while the apparatus was running, von Platen's team succeeded in creating the world's first synthetic diamond.
"But wait," you exclaim! "We all know that General Electric made the first synthetic diamond!"
Alas, paranoia robbed von Platen of the scientific recognition he so rightly deserved. ASEA was so worried that a competitor might steal their technology, the experiment was neither duplicated or published.
Some recent leaps in technology have seen diamonds mass produced by at least two different processes. Stay alert!