"Illegitemi non carborundum. Mock Latin slogan: Don't let the bastards grind you down."
Source unknown
In 1880 Edward Goodrich Acheson (1856-1931) developed an electrical battery that he tried to sell to the inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison. Rather than buying his battery, Edison gave Acheson a job.
Despite rapid promotion, Acheson left to become an independent inventor. As the superintendent of a factory that made lamps, he could conduct his own experiments. He wanted to recreate diamonds in the laboratory, but his processes for heating carbon failed. Next he tried mixing day and carbon together by electrically fusing the two. The fused mass he created had dark shiny specks in it, and examining these further he found they were extremely hard.
Acheson had created silicon carbide, which he named carborundum, wrongly thinking it to be a compound of carbon and aluminum. In 1893 he received a patent for his discovery. It was the hardest substance made by humankind, second only to diamond, and many realized its potential for the manufacturing industry. Its extremely high abrasiveness made it perfect for making precision- ground machine tools, and Acheson's initial production facility was soon swamped with orders.
In the mid-1890s Acheson discovered that by overheating carborundum he could make graphite. Today carborundum is used in sandpaper, disk brakes, ceramic membranes, and bulletproof vests.
