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.

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.

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.

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.