It all began with a failed experiment. It was in 1890. In a small Pennsylvania town, the inventor Edward Goodrich Acheson carried out a series of experiments. He tried to heat carbon so intensely that it would result in diamond. It didn't work. So Acheson began mixing clay with carbon and electrically fusing it. The result was a product with shiny specks that were hard enough to scratch glass. This was silicon carbide, also known as carborundum.