442 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 64 



G.E. HIGH-COMPRESSION BELT APPARATUS 



PRESS FORCE 



PRESS FORCE 



Figure 1. — Present form of the high pressure "belt.' 



by the photograph (pL 1, fig. 2) of a bar of graphite which has been 

 squeezed to diamond in its central section by these extreme transient 

 conditions. (The density of graphite is 2.25 ; that of diamond, 3.52.) 

 Still more recently, Biindy and Robert H. Wentorf, Jr., have detected 

 direct conversions at the upper end of the steady state temperature- 

 pressure regime. And, the answer to the question of tiTne is one of 

 nature's bounties; the time is "short" — a matter of minutes or seconds, 

 once reaction conditions have been attained. 



The announcement that diamonds had been made at the General 

 Electric Research Laboratory appeared in February 1955. To be 

 honest, it should be noted that the diamonds made up to that time 

 were small, as sliown in plate 2, fig. 1. Although they could be seen 

 with the naked eye, it was better to use a microscope, and it was im- 

 portant not to sneeze, for that might have done away with the entire 

 world supply at that time. 



