NOTEWORTHY INVENTORS:
NOTEWORTHY INVENTORS:
• On April 6, 1938, chemist Dr. Roy Plunkett was experimenting with coolant gases used in refrigerators and air conditioners at the DuPont laboratories in New Jersey. From the freezer he removed a tank of experimental gas he'd been working with, called tetrafluoroethylene. He expected to find a container of very cold gas, but when he turned the valve to let some gas out, nothing happened.
• Bill was one of the researchers working in the DuPont lab when Teflon was invented. He continued to experiment with it, inventing many uses. However, the DuPont Teflon team was disbanded in 1957. Bill begged his bosses to let him continue to work with Teflon, but was turned down.
ROY PLUNKETT
• He weighed the tank, which showed it should be full of gas. He checked the valve, but it worked fine. Perplexed, he cut the tank in half to find out what happened to the gas. He was surprised to see the gas had congealed into a solid, waxy substance. • Plunkett ran some tests. The new material was impervious to chemicals and heat; it did not absorb things and nothing absorbed it; it was colorless and odorless; and it had an extremely high melting point. • Plunkett had accidentally discovered what is popularly known as the slipperiest substance on Earth, equivalent to two wet ice cubes rubbing against each other in a warm room. The molecules of the substance are some of the largest molecules known. • Three years after Plunkett's accidental discovery, the process of manufacturing the substance was patented. Four years after that, it began to be sold on the market, mostly for military applications at first.
• He took Teflon home with him, experimented with it in his basement after work, and established his own company. His son Bob joined him, and in 1969 they discovered that Teflon would stretch if it was heated and then pulled slowly. They wanted to stretch it into a fabric, but time after time – while heating it and pulling it slowly – they failed. • Finally in frustration, Bob heated it and then yanked it. That was the secret. Teflon, when heated and stretched quickly, expands to 1000% of its original size and forms fabric. • Normally raincoats are made out of two layers: the outer layer is polyester or nylon, and the inner layer is polyurethane. Bill and Bob found that when sheets of this new Teflon fabric were inserted between the two layers, the raincoat was porous enough to breathe, but tight enough to be waterproof. • The fabric contains over 9 billion microscopic pores per square inch. Whereas the pores are about 20,000 times smaller than a drop of water, they are also 700 times bigger than a molecule of moisture vapor. Therefore, water droplets cannot get through the fabric, but gases and water vapor can easily escape. It was superior to any outerwear on the market. • Bill and Bob were granted a patent in 1976, the product line hit the market in 1989, and Bob was inducted into the Inventor’s Hall of Fame in 2006. The name of the fabric is based on Bill and Bob’s last name. What’s it called? (Answer at bottom of the page)
Answer
Weekly SUDOKU
Answer
King CROSSWORD
• Fifty years later Plunkett was inducted into the Inventor’s Hall of Fame. Today the product has hundreds of uses. It’s used on windshield wiper blades, it’s in fingernail polish, it forms a scratch-resistant coating on eyeglasses, it covers cookware, it protects fabrics, and it covers lightbulbs to make them shatterproof. The list is nearly endless. What is it commonly known as? (Answer at bottom of the page)
BILL & BOB
Answer: Teflon
Answer: Gore-Tex, named for Bill & Bob Gore