Wentorf, Robert

The first documented successes occurred in 1953 and 1954. The earliest one was quiet and remained unannounced by cautious researchers at Sweden s main electrical company. The other was announced with fanfare in February of 1955 by the General Electric Company before the Department of Defense silenced the company for several years in the interest of national security. The youngest member of the GE diamondmaking teams, the freshly graduated Robert Wentorf, Jr., even found that he could convert peanut butter, a rather popular carbon-containing material in its own right, into diamond grit. 

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