COMPANY HISTORY
The products and knowledge base that makes up Depths of the Earth Company grew out of the development endeavors and experimental methodologies of three of the world’s premier research facilities.
January 2021
2020s
The application and potential of the QUICKpress continues to expand, the company’s mission remains to provide state of the art equipment and supplies that serve the needs of scientists engaged in high-pressure high-temperature materials research.
January 2010
2010s
The company returns to its foundation with the sale and installation of a QUICKpress piston cylinder apparatus to the Carnegie Institute in Washington DC.
In 2017, Dr. Holloway passed away. The company’s daily operation and future vision remains under the guidance of Dr. Paul.
January 2000
2000s
The QUICKpress piston-cylinder advances understanding of the physical and chemical properties of the Earth’s interior by providing salient information to Earthquake studies, heat, fluid, and energy transport investigations and crustal evolution simulations. The equipment finds innovative uses in biological studies of viruses and bacteria, as well as in materials synthesis of superhard nano composites, superconducting wires, ductile ceramics, and giant magnetoresistent metals. The pressure and temperature range of operation for the QUICKpress is expanded —making the QUICKpress even more versatile and viable to an even greater number of research topics—by designing interchangeable pressure plate systems that utilize piston size to control applied force, first to the lower pressure stability range of 0.2 GPa, and later to a high pressure value of 4.0 GPa.
Dr. Holloway retires from academics and business in 2008. As a Professor Emeritus, his scientific pursuits continue to weave through and influence the high-pressure high-temperature experimental community.
January 1990
1990s
Technology advances and innovations are thoughtfully incorporated into the QUICKpress apparatus. In 1993 Dr. Tracy Paul joins Depths of the Earth Company as its first full-time R&D scientist.
January 1980
1980s
Depths of the Earth Company is founded by Dr. John Holloway in 1989 with the express purpose of designing, building, and selling QUICKpress non-endloaded piston-cylinder apparatus and providing the supplies needed for their operation.
January 1970
1970s
Experience with the instrumentation accumulates. Patera and Holloway of Pennsylvania State University innovate the equipment, making it easy and inexpensive to operate. The QUICKpress, as it becomes known, is originally designed to provide temperature between 25°C and 1800°C and pressure from 0.5 GPa to 2.5 GPa. The equipment synthesizes a range of technologically-important materials and advances understanding of the Earth’s near-surface and lower crust, as well as extra-terrestrial lithospheres and atmospheres.
January 1960
1960
Boyd and England of the Geophysical Laboratory at the Carnegie Institution of Washington DC build out the “belt” apparatus into the first piston cylinder device and use the equipment to facilitate the first laboratory synthesis of diamond.
January 1950
1950s
H.T. Hall of the GE Laboratory theorizes a “belt” apparatus.