July 2020 - Lab Grown Magazine

July 2020 | LG | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 22 To advertise call (888) 832-1109 | July 2020 23 Carroll Chatham – Emeralds at 12 Years Old “You’d have to call him a genius,” declares Tom Chatham, reminiscing about his father’s explosive garage experiments as a child. And explosive they were, literally and figuratively. The components of his formulas would have forced most children to find a new hobby, but—for one 12-year-old boy living in San Francisco—he sim- ply reduced the heat and refined his craft to cre- ate the first man-made emerald. In the years to come, Carroll refined the pro- cess, perfecting it in his pre-college years. “Cre- ating emeralds required less heat and pressure, allowing my dad to experiment with formulas. He was a natural chemist and followed the one pas- sion that awarded him a lot of press and even a place in Ripley’s Believe It or Not for making emeralds at such a young age. Tom Chatham joined his father in the family business in 1965 and, aged 21 years at the time, also became a pioneer in the industry. Since his father’s emerald-growing formula had been refined at that stage, Tom began growing other colored gemstones. Working very closely with his father, he learned that gemology and chemistry are two very differ- ent things. The latter allows for deconstruction to reverse engineer the process. Tom became the face and voice of the brand. He clearly under- stood the importance of PR early on when he convinced a popular 1950s television show to come to his home-lab and watch Carroll in action. Through the years, he worked hand-in-hand with his father and brought lab-grown rich red rubies, vivid blue sapphires (which took many years to finalize), alexandrite, and opals, all of which are now offered with other LG gems, as well as a wide variety of colorless LGDs. As you may know, the father of lab-grown dia- monds is GE’s Tracy Hall, who made worldwide headlines as the creator of the first man-created diamonds in 1954. Hall and Chatham were part- ners of sorts. While Hall gained the credit for cre- ating the first reproducible process in making LG rough, key parts of the story were never told. Here’s one: GE knew a patent was mandatory, but they also knew it had to be a utility patent (protecting the way a process/article is used and works). Tom recalls a story his father shared to underline that a utility patent was required: sci- entists playfully used peanut butter as a form of gear lubricant as an example of emphasizing the functionality focus of Hall’s diamond press. This accounts for the fact that, while Hall dis- covered the LG process on February 15, 1954, it took a full year for the media blitz to occur, allowing GE to acquire the proper intellectual rights protection. For an interesting education on LGD history and the growing process, you can hear an inter- view of Tom Chatham on Groco at https://tinyurl. com/LabGrownJune2020-Chatham. ■ Dan Scott is the Founder and Brand Architect of Luxe Licensing, a New York/metro digital marketing agency and brand extension group catering to the luxury industry. Fine jewelry clients include Gucci, Harry Winston,Van Cleef & Arpels and several developmental brands. Dan invites conversation and may be reached at dans@luxelicensing.com or through www.luxelicensing.com. Left: Carroll F. Chatham in his home lab circa 1937. Right: Carroll’s first garage lab when he was only 12 years of age. (Photos: Chatham) Advertise Here for $275/per month 2.875”W x 2.125”H $275 Advertise Here for $275/per month 2.875”W x 2.125”H $275 An Epitome of Modern Luxury. 54 West 47th Street, New York NY - 10036 Cell: +1 (718) 407 9009 | Phone: +1 (212) 221 4400 Email: labgrown@diamspark.com Discover our extensive collection of high-quality Lab-grown Diamonds