14 Facts About Tracy Hall

Howard Tracy Hall was an American physical chemist and one of the early pioneers in the research of synthetic diamonds, using a press of his own design.

Tracy Hall was a descendant of Mormon pioneers and grew up on a farm in Marriott, Utah.

Tracy Hall went to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he received his BSc in 1942 and his MSc in the following year.

Tracy Hall returned to the University of Utah in 1946, where he was Henry Eyring's first graduate student, and was awarded his PhD in physical chemistry in 1948.

Tracy Hall joined a team focused on synthetic diamond making, codenamed "Project Superpressure" headed by engineer Anthony Nerad.

Tracy Hall produced synthetic diamond in a press of his own design on December 16,1954, and showed that he and others could repeat the process following Tracy Hall's procedure, a success which led to the creation of a major supermaterials industry.

Tracy Hall was one of a group of about a half dozen researchers who had focused on achieving the synthesis for almost four years.

Tracy Hall "bootlegged" the machining of the first hardened steel version of this press, which showed some promise, and eventually got management to approve the construction of it in the tougher, much more expensive Carboloy.

Tracy Hall used iron sulfide and a form of powdered carbon as the starting material, with tantalum disks to conduct the electricity into the cell for heating it.

Tracy Hall left GE in 1955 and became a full professor of chemistry and director of research at Brigham Young University.

Tracy Hall transferred the technology for the cubic press system to China in about 1960, and today the vast majority of the world's synthetic diamond powder is produced using the many thousands of cubic presses of Hall's design presently operating in that country.

Tracy Hall co-founded MegaDiamond in 1966, and later was involved with the founding of Novatek, both of Provo, Utah.

Tracy Hall died on July 25,2008, in Provo, Utah, at the age of 88.

Tracy Hall had seven children, 35 grandchildren and 53 great-grandchildren.