• Welcome to the new Internet Infidels Discussion Board, formerly Talk Freethought.

Miracle material lost?

lpetrich

lpetrich

Contributor
Joined
Jul 27, 2000
Messages
25,311
Location
Eugene, OR
Gender
Male
Basic Beliefs
Atheist
 Starlite
YouTube Video: A Super-Material You Can Make In Your Kitchen (Starlite?)
A Super-Material You Can Make In Your Kitchen (Starlite?) - YouTube
What happened to `starlite', a material with seemingly miraculous heat-resisting properties invented by a former hairdresser and made from the chemicals and potions he had at work? Did the inventor persuade anyone to back him? | Notes and Queries | guardian.co.uk
How To Make Starlite - The Miracle Insulating Material of Maurice Ward | Metabunk
From the Wikipedia article,
Starlite is a material claimed to be able to withstand and insulate from extreme heat. It was invented by British amateur chemist and hairdresser Maurice Ward during the 1970s and 1980s, and received significant publicity after coverage of the material aired in 1990 on the BBC science and technology show Tomorrow's World.[1] The name Starlite was coined by Ward's granddaughter Kimberly.

Despite interest from NASA and other major technological companies, Ward, who died in 2011, never revealed the composition of Starlite, which is still unknown. He once mentioned that his close family knows the fabrication process, but after his death neither his wife nor any of his four daughters have produced any sample to demonstrate that they know the process.

...
Under tests, Starlite was claimed to be able to withstand attack by a laser beam that could produce a temperature of 10,000 degrees Celsius. Live demonstrations on Tomorrow's World and BBC Radio 4 showed that an egg coated in Starlight could remain raw, and cold enough to be picked up with a bare hand, even after five minutes in the flame of a blowtorch. It would also prevent a blowtorch from damaging a human hand.[2] When heat is applied, the material chars, which creates an expanding low density foam of carbon which is very thermally resistant.[3]
Click to expand...
He was reluctant to let anyone keep any samples of this material, out of fear that they might reverse-engineer it. He was also reluctant to make deals to manufacture it, apparently wanting some sizable fraction of ownership. He never patented it, either.

That makes the Wright brothers look reasonable, despite holding back US airplane development with their patent claims. They took out a patent on something critical to powered flight: warping an airplane's wing to control it. However, they were very reluctant to license their patent, and that hindered the development of US airplane manufacturing. Another early developer of airplanes, Glenn Curtis, developed a workaround: ailerons. Instead of warping a wing, one would move a flap that is attached to a wing. The Wright brothers sued him for infringement, and the litigation dragged on for some years. During World War I, the US government ended this patent war by forcing airplane makers to cross-license their patents to whomever might want to make airplanes, thus creating a patent pool.

As this was happening, Europeans were progressing faster, because of a greater willingness to share their inventions.


As to what Starlite might be, one can only speculate. But my linked YouTube video shows someone who made a Starlite-like material. He used cornstarch, baking soda, and Elmer's Glue. The glue acts as a binder, the cornstarch as a carbon source, and the baking soda as a carbon-dioxide source to keep oxygen away. Heating the material made it decompose, leaving behind a spongy material that is largely carbon. This material is a good thermal insulator and a very heat-resistant material.
 
I recall seeing a video clip of the guy giving a demonstration.
 
That material was experimented on, even if its inventor did not allow very comprehensive tests or analyses of its composition. So it was a real material, even if it may not have lived up to its inventor's hype.

How good it was we may never know for sure. NightHawkInLight is the one who made my linked YouTube video, and his material is what Starlite likely was: a sort of carbon foam produced by decomposition. I say that because Starlite was likely made from some rather commonplace materials, and NHIL's material was made from three commonplace ones. But being carbon makes it vulnerable to being burned away with high enough temperature.
 
Who experimented on it?

Why does none of it exist?

Very fishy stuff.
 
World shocked as greedy asshole holds out until he dies. News at 11.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom