very
great and were not finally solved until the years after the Second
World War. On 15 February 1955, the General Electric Company of America
announced the successful completion of more than four years of
intensive research, 'part of a general programme for examining various
materials subjected to combined high temperature and pressure'.52
What
had so been produced were very small diamonds, not gem stones, but
stones capable of use for industrial purposes, if the high original
cost of making them could be reduced thus enabling commerÂcial
production to take place. Both in respect of the reduction of costs and
of increasing the size of this man-made material, success (though not,
in this respect, commercial success) was subsequently achieved.
This
achievement was a challenge to the diamond-mining industry which had at
once to be faced, even though, in 1955, only the technical possibility
of making diamonds had been established, and the possible economic
consequences were still remote. Ernest Oppenheimer, whose belief in
research has been sufficiently stressed, and through whose initiative
the Diamond Research Laboratory at Johannesburg had been established,
at once took action.
Within
a month ... Sir Ernest Oppenheimer decided that an independent effort
should be made to produce synthetic diamonds in South Africa. A special
laboratory building, the Adamant Research Laboratory, was estabÂlished
for this purpose, and the required staff was engaged or seconded from
the Diamond Research Laboratory. The building was finished in October
1956.53
On 16 September 1959, success was achieved
..
. although it was known only the following day that it had been
successful, when one of the team invited the other co-workers to have a
glance through a binocular microscope as there was something of
importance to be seen. The moment we looked through the instrument, we
knew that diamonds
52 This
communication to the Press was followed by the publication in its own
journal by the A.S.E.A. (a Swedish concern) in the course of 1955 of an
announcement that it had successfully produced synthetic diamonds as
early as 15 February 1953. There is no doubt that synthetic diamonds
were so produced. In recent times also, the National Physical
Laboratory in England and the United States Army Signal and Research
Laboratory, 'as part of a programme of seeking new electronic
materials' have also produced synthetic diamonds. (U.S. Army Press
release dated 7 March i960.)
53 J. F. H. Custers: 'Diamond synthesis in South Africa', in supplement to Delta (thejournal
of the Engineering Faculty of the University of Pretoria) issue of
September i960. Dr. Custers is director of research at the Adamant
Laboratory and it is to him and his colleagues that the achievement of
making synthetic diamonds in South Africa is due. The project was
financed by De Beers Consolidated Mines, the necessary resolution
having been passed by the board of that company on 30 March 1955.
