ABSTRACT
Carburizing gases in contact with metallic particles have been utilized by many human technologies, but documented observations of nanofiber-related structures began in the nineteenth century. One clear example was the 1889 U.S. patent of Hughes and Chambers, describing “hair-like carbon filaments” grown at high temperature by flowing a hydrogen/methane feedstock through iron crucibles.2 This is a good description of carbon filaments thickened with vapor-deposited carbon. However, unraveling this multi-step growth process was too formidable a task for nineteenth-century technology, so this process was not practicable for producing its intended product: electric light bulb filaments.
