(ambient music)
(lightbulb ding)
- [Narrator] Behold, carborundum.
But where did it come from?
Meet Edward Goodrich Acheson.
Born in Pennsylvania in 1856.
Edward was a bright student,
but when his father died
he had to quit school
and work to support the family.
Yet he continued his
education in the evenings,
setting up electrical experiments.
When he contacted Thomas Edison,
and tried to sell one
of his battery designs,
Edison hired him and sent him to Europe
to install electrical systems.
Eventually, Edward struck out on his own
and tried to use electric heat
to impregnate clay with carbon.
What he ended up with was a lump
peppered with small, shiny specks
of a substance that he would
later recognize as carborundum.
Carborundum is silicon carbide,
and though it can occur
naturally it is extremely rare.
This is why Edward's
discovery is so significant.
By using his electric furnace
to fuse clay and carbon,
Edward managed to manufacture
the second hardest substance known to man.
Today, carborundum is used
in dozens of industries.
You can find it in
ballistic vests, abrasives,
disk brakes, and even as a
coating for nuclear fuel.
In 1926, the U.S. patent
office named carborundum
as one of the 22 patents most responsible
for the industrial age.
(ambient music)
