Starlite...

[thebigchill]

Anyone heard of a supposedly miraculous invention called starlite or starbrite? Made by a hairdresser a decade or so ago...could withstand stupendously crazy temperatures? Or is someone pulling my leg...

[ChuckFickens]

nope no leg pulling... it was invented by Maurice Ward a former hairdresser from North Yorkshire

http://itotd.com/articles/653/starlite/

[ChuckFickens]

sorry should have put

nope no leg pulling... it was allegedly invented by Maurice Ward a former hairdresser from North Yorkshire.

[thebigchill]

Ooh the conspiracy theory part of my brain just went into overdrive!! Cheers for that chuck, whats your thoughts on this?

[ChuckFickens]

I read the article quickly and a couple of others that can be found by putting "starlite heat resistant" into google and gotta admit I am surprised that anything that seemed, or was claimed to be, so revolutionary and effective disappeared pretty much without trace.

rings bells of suspicion that it was a scam to start with 1st and then conspiracy 2nd to be honest.

[theprof]

I was shown a sample solid sample of this polymer at a Government research agency I worked for around a year after it hit the headlines.

The sample was about to be tested to destruction on site, but because the tests were carried out by at a nearby facility that I rarely visited, I don't know the outcome. I was up to my head in my own work at the time.

Rest assured, Starlite did exist.

[jake-the-peg]

The main reason it disappeared was because it wasn't patented so nobody else knew how to make it and he kept insisting on ridiculouly large amounts of money so nobody was interested in doing business with him.

No conspiracy just bad business

[heathfield]

I saw this plastic being demonstrated by the inventor on TV, in front of a couple of American government officials. A gas blowtorch was used on the sample for about two minutes. With the blowtorch removed, the undamaged sample could be picked up straight away, and felt only warm. The US rejected it because the inventor wouldn't give them the recipe, and insisted that he was the only person who would make it for them.
With the problems over the ceramic tiles on the NASA space shuttles, I often wondered why the US didn't swallow its pride, and use this plastic stuff instead.

[theprof]

I made some enquiries about this earlier today at the laboratory I mentioned in my last post.

It seems that the polymer composition was established before it was tested to destruction. Various spectroscopic and other techniques available at the time were good enough for further samples of Starlite to be made at the laboratory. What surprised everyone was the simplicity of manufacture - the stuff could be made easily at home with some basic laboratory chemicals and equipment.

The Starlite research was extensive and full details of the findings were filed away. Disclosure of the findings was prohibited. Nevertheless, it is possible that the method of manufacture will become public some time in the future - the reports were certainly not classified at an equivalent to "Top Secret"