Carroll Chatham

Carroll Chatham (1914–1983) was an American chemist who developed the flux method for synthesizing emeralds. He was the first person to develop a method for creating man-made emeralds that was able to make them commercially available. He founded the jewelry company Chatham which is still selling Chatham emeralds to this day.

Early life

Carroll Chatham grew up in San Francisco, California and he developed an interest in gemology at an early age. As a teenager, he was already experimenting in his garage. His goal was to synthesize diamonds but after an explosion during one of these attempts, which caused his father to make Chatham change his experiments. This change led him to attempt to synthesize emeralds instead, but this included the challenge of there not being a known method for developing emeralds like the flame fusion method used for creating rubies and sapphires. His first successful experiment was the development of a colorless gem in 1930. This gem was made of beryl, which is a significant development since emeralds are a part of the beryl family. Only 5 years later Chatham synthesized a 1-carat emerald.

Career

Chatham attended the California Institute of Technology and received a chemistry degree in 1938. After graduating he spent a few years in the industry before owning his own laboratory. This laboratory is where he continued to work on developing his synthetic gems. Using this lab, he was able to create the first commercially marketable emerald. These Chatham emeralds are still sold to this day and because of his flux method, they do not have the inclusions or fractures that are common in natural emeralds. He then built up his Chatham jewelry company and continued to develop more synthetic gems. These gems include rubies and sapphires.

Legacy

Chatham was not the first person to make man-made gems, but he was the first to create emeralds. Before him, both rubies and sapphire