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It was Henri Moissan, Professor of Chemistry at the Sorbonne in Paris, who made the first great discoveries in the use of the electric furnace and produced the first artificial diamonds.

The study of diamonds led Moissan to believe that in nature they are formed by the cooling of a melted mixture of iron and carbon.

So, with an electric furnace having electrodes as large as a man's wrist, a mixture of iron and charcoal in a carbon crucible, and a glass tank filled with water, Moissan set out to change the charcoal to diamonds.

Attempts to make diamonds artificially have been numerous, but, with the sole exception of those of Henri Moissan, all have resulted in failure.

Moissan carried out a laborious and systematic series of experiments on the solubility of carbon in iron and other metals, and came to the conclusion that whereas at ordinary pressures the carbon separates from the solidifying iron in the form of graphite, if the pressure be greatly increased the carbon on separation will form liquid drops, which on solidifying will assume the crystalline shape and become true diamond.