People have been fascinated by diamonds for centuries, and scientists tried for about a century to produce them in a laboratory for about a century before they succeeded in a General Electric lab in 1954. This is the story of that quest. It is told with a liveliness and thoroughness quite unusual and delightful. Hazen describe the failed attempts of the early researchers, in some detail, and shows how one of the legends taught to me long ago as a child are bogus. Moissan could not have produced diamonds by the method he described.



The story of Charles Parsons' (the inventor of the steam turbine) attempts was new to me and made me respect him all the more. Thirty years of failed attempts by one of the foremost mechanics of the early twentieth century showed the world just how challenging the synthesis was. Hazen gives a lively account of Percy Bridgeman's exploits in opening up the whole field of high pressure research to systematic study. His clever double-piston apparatus is clearly described, and I was entertained to learn how he published a couple of papers on how to measure pressure in it without divulging its geometry.



The final breakthrough by Hall and coworkers at GE is described in some detail, and the controversy over credits and rewards is laid out for all it is worth. The personalities and their foibles and eccentricities of giants are always quite something. I hugely enjoyed this, and wound up sympathizing with Hall. Then Hazen goes into the modern developments of the scale-up to a quite profitable business, which is very impressive stuff. This is all still developing and changing decades later, and Hazen even includes some well-informed speculation on the importance of the newer vapor phase processes as well.



I really enjoyed the fact that the book included lots of pictures and diagrams of the apparatus. Adds a lot. This is thrilling science and you'd have to be quite the cynic to think otherwise.