Table 3.1 Milestones in the history of carbon material.
| Approximately 13 × 109 years ago | The element carbon is formed in the first stars of the universe |
| Approximately 4 × 109 years ago | The first terrestrial diamonds grow in volcanic magma |
| >1 × 109 years ago | The first terrestrial deposits of graphite emerge |
| Approximately 30 000 years ago | Carbon black and charcoal are used as color pigments for cave painting |
| Approximately 8 000 BC | Charcoal is used for the reduction of metal ores |
| Approximately 3 500 BC | Indian ink with carbon black is invented by the Hindu Panningrishee |
| Approx. 1 500 BC | Charcoal powder is used as medicine in Egypt |
| Approx. 500 BC | Celts form ceramic flagons from clay and natural graphite |
| 1220 | Bavarian peasants near Passau win natural graphite for crucibles and cart grease |
| 1456 | Johannes Gutenberg prints the Bible in Mainz with printer’s ink (carbon black) |
| 1565 | Pencils with natural graphite are manufactured by sheep farmers in Cumberland |
| 1709 | Coal coke is used in a blast furnace by Abraham Darby I at Coalbrookdale (England) |
| 1772 | Graphite and diamond are identified as elemental carbon by Antoine Lavoisier |
| 1810 | The first electric arc with charcoal is generated by Humphry Davy in London |
| 1822 | Carbon black is produced from natural gas by Samuel and Godfrey Cabot in the United States |
| 1844 | The first useful arc lamp with carbon rods is constructed by Léon Foucault in Paris |
| 1854 | Aluminum is manufactured with carbon electrodes by Robert Bunsen in Heidelberg |
| 1866 | Werner Siemens constructs the dynamo with carbon brushes in Berlin |
| 1878 | Joseph Swan and Thomas a. Edison invent filament lamps with carbon fibers |
| 1886 | Aluminum is produced with carbon electrodes by Charles Hall and Paul Héroult |
| 1892 | Chlor‐alkali electrolysis with Hg and carbon anodes, invented by Hamilton Y. Castner |
| 1893 | Synthetic graphite by lengthwise graphitization, invented by Hamilton Y. Castner |
| 1895 | Synthetic graphite by crosswise graphitization, invented by Edward G. Acheson |
| 1900 | R. Von Ostrejko invents activated carbon by chemical and gas activation |
| 1909 | The industrial production of activated carbon from charcoal starts at Ratibor (Silesia) |
| 1925 | Carbon black produced by the furnace black process, developed in the United States |
| 1935 | Carbon black from tar aromatics by the Degussa gas black process (Harry Kloepfer) |
| 1942 | Enrico Fermi constructs the first nuclear reactor with reactor graphite in Chicago |
| 1955 | General Electric starts the industrial diamond synthesis by the high‐pressure process |
| 1956 | Boris Spitzyn and Boris Derjaguin invent the low‐pressure diamond synthesis |
| 1958 | General Electric starts the production of glass‐like carbon shapes |
| 1965 | J. D. Brooks and G. H. Taylor discover the carbon mesophase in coal‐tar pitch |
| 1985 | H. W. Kroto, R. F. Curl, and R. E. Smalley discover the fullerenes |
| 1990 | W. Krätschmer et al. invent the fullerene synthesis by the electric arc process |
| 1991 | Sumio Iijima discovers the carbon nanotubes in the NEC laboratory of Tsukuba |
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