The gentleman feels for something in his jacket pocket. It’s a nice suit, and it is accompanied by a suitably gentlemanly bow-tie. The effect is sartorially unusual but not too much. What will come out of the pocket, though, is more than unusual. It is unparalleled and almost unbelievable. ‘Here,’ says Maurice Ward, handing over a creamy small square. ‘That’s Starlite.’ It’s a piece of plastic that bends in all directions, with a charred mark the size of a coin on one side. ‘That’s from the nuclear blast,’ says Ward. ‘Don’t worry, there’s no nuclear stuff on it. I wouldn’t have given it to you otherwise.’
It feels and looks like nothing much, but holding this nondescript piece of plastic would be, to the world’s defence and scientific community, somewhat of a privilege. Starlite, invented by the white-bearded, suited Ward, has been described as astonishing; impossible; miraculous. It has changed assumptions about thermodynamics and physics. It can resist temperatures that would melt diamonds, threefold. ‘If it is what it seems,’ says Toby Greenbury, a partner at law firm Mischon de Reya and Ward’s lawyer for 20 years, ‘it will be of enormous benefit to mankind. It’s very difficult to think of another invention that is bigger in its implications.’ As a fire-retardant, thermal barrier or heat-resistant coating, Starlite could change the world. Except that it hasn’t, and that’s as much of a mystery as the secret, unheard of properties of the material Ward invented 23 years ago.
Read the whole thing. It’s a remarkable story. It’s as though Wallace and Gromit had got cold fusion to work. I have no idea what to make of it though. I mean if this is for real and there are no killer downsides then…
More here.
This thing is for real. I remember seeing Starlite in action for the first Time on Tomorrow’s World yonks ago. I always wondered what happened to the wonder substance. Now I know.
Yes, I remember seeing it too, it was definately not one of those stories that were prevalent in my dad’s youth, of some bloke inventing a tablet that you just dropped in your petrol tank and filled it up with water, and hey presto! but the evil Oil companies bought up the formula.
He does seem to be a daft awkward bugger though doesn’t he? Christ settle for half a billion outright sale. Buggering about patenting it will be no good, cos it will instantly be ripped off by China, Russia etc who will blithely claim they invented it first, so fuck off for the royalties!
Lynne,
For real - yes, probably BUT until the big companies can get their paws on it then they don’t know a lot of “details” like the viability of mass-production or any similar practical “engineering” issues.
RAB,
You’re right. It would make him very rich indeed and he might even get a phone-call from Sweden. Libertarians discuss IP issues until the cows come home. The fact that an invention so brilliant and with so many apps hasn’t been brought to market in over two decades shows something is rotten. Or Mr Ward is quite simply a founder member of the league of contrary buggers.
Nick, contrary buggeration seems to be the big sticking point. But as you say, until the substance is tested to destruction, no one will know for certain.
It’s not so much the testing of properties of starlight but the question of making and using it practically.
As to the “contrary buggeration” (phrase filed) it seems Mr Ward wants to retain control over the invention. I thought about this whilst trimming hedges yesterday and it seems to me that all truly great innovations cannot be controlled like that. They are all djinns let out of bottles that wind-up taking us to places the original inventors never even imagined. That is what makes them great. I guess you might compare it to parenting. You bring the kid up best you can but there comes a point to step aside and see what glorious havoc follows.
I remember reading an article about this a few years ago, the article fairly comprehensively rubbished all the claims made for this stuff. The egg test for example can be duplicated using any number of insulating clays. I can’t find the article on-line it must have been from the days of paper and ink.
There’s always a ‘but’. Dollars to doughnuts there’s one this time.
I remember this also (now I think about it - I also watched the “Tomorrow’s World” show).
“There is always a but” - yes, but there is always away around the “but”, at least developers used to find them.
No - our civilization is turning into the late Classical one.
People are not stupid - they invent things (just as they did then), but “for one reason or another” (endless regulations and legal problems and …..) inventions do not get USED.
Perhaps the start of the showing that “the writing was on the wall” was what happened to the Orion spacecraft project - indeed to the use of nuclear things generally.
And to DDT and to…….
In the 1960s certain things (without most people noticeing it at the time) started to turn against the development of technology.
Paul Johnson is correct - there was a CULTURAL change, and it hit a lot more than politics (at least it did over the long run).
The West is just not the same culture that it was.