A Brief History (8.02)
On December 16, 1954 the General Electric chemist, H. Tracy Hall, produced the first reproducible HPHT (high pressure high temperature) synthetic diamond. Synthetic diamonds go back to the 1950s in the U.S. and Sweden. Their use was strictly industrial -- hence not a threat to the jewelry industry. In 1970, General Electric came up with a gem quality synthetic diamond, but the cost of producing it was far greater than its natural counterpart value.
The above image is courtesy of: http://www.idexonline.com/image_bank/image_folders/General/GIA-synthetic_report-large.jpg
1971: The first gem quality High-Pressure High-Temperature (HPHT) lab-grown diamond was produced by General Electric. Typically containing nitrogen, the diamonds were mostly yellow but still this was a major breakthrough toward the ultimate creation of jewelry grade man made diamonds.
1980s: The first Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) lab-grown diamonds were improved to gem quality and were available to the public for jewelry purposes. Even though the original CVD diamonds originated from the 1950s they were small and strictly industrial quality.
The above image is courtesy of: https://labgrowndiamonds.com.au/blogs/news/history-of-lab-grown-diamonds-by-gia
2007: GIA (Gemological Institute of America) started issuing synthetic diamond report that were focused on identification rather than comprehensive grading, but by 2019, the GIA changed its terminology to "laboratory-grown" and the reports now include the standard 4Cs and other grading characteristics to ensure clarity and informed purchasing for buyers.
2018: The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) updated their guidelines in 2018, recognizing lab-grown diamonds as "real" diamond, since they share the same chemical, physical, and optical properties as naturally mined diamonds. They removed the word "natural" and eliminated misleading terms like "synthetic". The FTC's updated guides now urge jewelers to use terms such as "laboratory-grown" or "lab-created" to convey the diamond's origin to the potential buyer. The author would encourage the wording “real lab-grown diamond” versus “real diamond”. If lab-grown was “real” it would be impossible for a sophisticated lab to discern the difference between the two.