NOTE I
the advent of synthetic (industrial) diamonds
In the half decade which ended with the outbreak of World War II the results of research on the one hand, and changes in the technological requirements
of industry on the other hand, had combined to affect very profoundly
the demand for the industrial grades of diamonds: the actual outbreak
of the war itself intensified this demand, which continued into the
post-war era, and thereby enormously strengthened the whole position of
the diamond-producing industry; in particular, the principal producer
in what was then the Belgian Congo was greatly advantaged. Given a
rising demand for 'industrials' and a relatively inelastic supply, the
limits to which were set by Nature, the market price for industrials
was bound to go up and even if the producers and the distributors at
first hand kept prices relatively low, the only consequence was that
intermediaries in the trade made correspondingly greater gains. This
was a situation which, combined with the reluctance of American
consumers (including the Government of the United States of America) to
be dependent on a source of supply many thousands of miles away, might
have been expected to encourage attempts to find a synthetic
substitute, if this were at all possible. From the strictly economic
point, the situation was one for which many parallels can be found: in
the field of fibres, for instance, the dependence of the world on jute
from India and Pakistan, and the difficulties occasioned thereby in
times of rising demand and short supply, has given a great impetus to
the use of paper of special qualities as a packaging material; in the
same way, aluminium and copper are highly competitive products.
The
attempts to produce 'artificial' diamonds have a long history. The
story involves some eminent scientific names; it is highly
controversial even as regards the scientific aspects51 and
not devoid of blatant fraud in at least one celebrated case—that of
Lemoine, who succeeded in swindling the late Sir Julius Wernher out of
a very large amount of money. The technical problems to be encountered
were
51 For bibliographical references, vide the pamphlet issued by the Research Information Services of the General Electric Company of America, in March 1955, Man-made diamonds, pp. 8-10, and pp. 737-8 of Mellor's Comprehensive treatise on inorganic and theoretical chemistry (1924).
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