Topic: Nuclear proof plastic invented in Scotland

[Stormbringer]

I've seen serious news media report on this invention including NBC, Newsweek, and Janes. And I asked web savy and UK members for info on this here years ago with no info forthcoming. Maybe now with info like the inventor's name and other specifics in tha article this time will be different.

here is a 1993 copy of a newsweek article on it. i am soliciting comments because this stuff if real is so extraordinary we could make jet engines and shuttle skins out of it without needing strategic metals or tile systems.

Copyright 1993 McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Business Week
August 16, 1993

SECTION: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY; Number 3332; Pg. 100
HEADLINE: PLASTIC THAT CAN WITHSTAND A NUCLEAR BLAST?
BYLINE: Fred Guterl in Hartlepool, England

HIGHLIGHT: Starlite dazzles scientists, but its inventor won't divulge the recipe

BODY: Maurice Ward pulls aside a red suspender and reaches into his shirt pocket. Out comes a thin, cream-colored rectangle about the size of a bathroom tile. Before handing it to a visitor, he hesitates, aware that this nondescript plastic may represent a breakthrough in materials science that rivals John Wesley Hyatt's invention of plastic in 1869. "This is only to look at," he cautions, "not to walk away with."

Ward's brainchild, which he calls Starlite, is waxy to the touch and as stiff as rubber sheeting. This piece is covered with marks, and Ward points to a faint discoloration at the center. "That one's from Foulness," he says, referring to 1990 tests at Britain's answer to Los Alamos National Laboratory. Scientists at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Foulness, 50 miles east of London, bombarded the tile with lasers that simulate the heat of a nuclear explosion.

TOUGH AS STEEL. In the most severe test, the plastic was zapped for two minutes-plus by laser beams packing sufficient energy to produce spot temperatures of 10,000C. Yet Starlite emerged essentially unscathed. A Foulness scientist says he is stumped for why, despite photos showing that a thin layer of ionized gas formed on the surface and seemed to insulate the plastic. Nothing should slough off that much energy, adds Rustum Roy, a professor of materials science at Pennsylvania State University. The sturdiest metals vaporize above 2,000C, and pure carbon goes poof at 3,500C. "This stuff sounds like it's breaking the laws of physics," Roy said when told of Starlite by BUSINESS WEEK.

That was the universal reaction when Ward, a hairdresser turned recycler of plastics, claimed in 1989 that he had concocted a plastic that was barely singed by the 2,700C flame of a welder's acetylene torch. Snickers turned to amazement when a major British industrial lab couldn't touch Starlite even with a plasma torch, which is hotter and easily cuts through 18 inches of steel. One researcher, who asks not to be named, laid a 18-inch-thick sample of Starlite on a 1-inch-thick slab of aluminum. The plasma torch sliced the aluminum "like a hot knife through butter," he recalls -- but it stopped when it hit the plastic.

Then, there was the scientist at Imperial Chemical Industries PLC who placed some Starlite in a small laboratory furnace designed to measure precisely how much smoke and energy a material releases during combustion. But this plastic wouldn't burn. Penn State's Roy, after checking with his research contacts in Britain's defense community, is impressed, too. "It's not hokum," he says. "Ward has found something."

Exactly what is a secret known only to Ward and a few family members. But Vladimir Hlavacek, professor of chemical engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo, speculates that Starlite contains "a lot of silicon carbide," which is an excellent heat conductor. It's conceivable, he adds, that a backyard experimenter could, through trial and error, hit upon an important discovery by combining various such nonpolymeric materials with existing plastics and flame-retarding chemicals.

LIFESAVER? Needless to say, defense officials are intrigued. Starlite seems to promise coatings that could protect spy satellites from laser weapons -- or shields on tanks that could fend off heat from a nuclear blast. Britain's Defense Ministry is now running tests at Cambridge University and the Royal Signals & Radar Establishment in Malvern to gauge Starlite's suitability as a coating for ballistic missiles to prevent overheating during reentry into the atmosphere. In one July test, it took just nine seconds to heat a warhead to 900C. But a paper-thin skin of Starlite halted the temperature rise at 40C.

In addition to being virtually fireproof, then, Starlite may be a superb thermal insulator. James P. Smigie, marketing manager for high-performance polymers at Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals Inc. in New York, recalls a demonstration three years ago in which a Starlite tile was blasted with a blowtorch for five minutes -- while the other side stayed cool enough to touch. Even under fire by the high-power lasers at Foulness, the temperature of the back side of the tile rose by less than 25C.

If these properties can be translated into commercial products, Starlite's payoffs could be huge. It could become revolutionary garb for firefighters. And Starlite upholstery and wall coverings would reduce the hazards of fire in homes, offices, and planes. "It's extraordinary stuff," says James A. Stempson, president of TransTechnology Electronics Inc., a Peoria manufacturer of electrical cables and connectors that hopes to manufacture Starlite.

UTTER SECRECY. So far, though, nobody but Ward has produced the material -- because Ward drives an outlandish bargain. Not content with the usual inventor's royalty of a small percentage of sales, he insists that any company wanting to capitalize on his baby create a joint venture and cede a 51% ownership stake to him. But since he spurns requests for samples -- to prevent his recipe from being divined by chemical analysis -- it isn't known whether Starlite can be made commercially. Ward won't even file for a patent because that would require divulging the ingredients.

Researchers at several U.S. plastics suppliers are keeping a watchful eye on Starlite but decline to comment until they know more about the material. "That's where we've been for four years, and Maurice hasn't been able to get beyond that step," says Smigie of Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals. But a break in this logjam may be in the offing. Sir Ronald Mason, a former chief scientist at the Defense Ministry, who last year was retained by Ward as a marketing consultant, predicts a deal will be signed within a few months. Trans Technology's Stempson, for one, doesn't rule out a joint venture on Ward's terms.

Now a portly 61, Ward is a stereotypical garage-shop inventor. He began searching for a better flame-retardant plastic after he learned a decade ago that most deaths in airliner crash landings are caused by smoke from burning plastics in the cabin. He hit upon the first forerunner to Starlite in 1986 but continued to tinker with it until 1989. That's when he put a welder's torch to his latest recipe -- a brew of 21 polymers, ceramics, and additives -- and failed to produce any smoke, let alone a hole. "I realized that I had a winner," he says.

Today, Ward spends much of his time receiving a steady stream of visitors, including defense officials from NATO countries and industrialists from as far away as Japan, at his modest house. So far, though, Ward has rejected their overtures. If he continues to stall, some experts believe that it's only a matter of time before other researchers hit upon Starlite's recipe -- and leave Ward holding the bag.

[J. Carney]

OK, how does it do as far as high-level radiation insulation?

If it is a good heat insulator, and it blocks X, gama, and cosmic rays, then it might be the answer to insulating along-duration mision module to say... Mars?

[Stormbringer]

OK, how does it do as far as high-level radiation insulation?

If it is a good heat insulator, and it blocks X, gama, and cosmic rays, then it might be the answer to insulating along-duration mision module to say... Mars?

there is a way to make plastic opaque to hard radiation. it involves impregnating it with hydrogen molecules. The hydrogen then absorbs incoming radiation. That is some currently research going on for NASA. But the main use of this particular stuff would be thermal protection and structural members. I am mad as hell that they won't pay this man what it is worth. assuming these media reports about govt and industrial testing of the material are true.

[J. Carney]

Yeah... this is really breakthrough stuff... and the gov't ALWAYS rapes people on things like that!

[Stormbringer]

Yeah... this is really breakthrough stuff... and the gov't ALWAYS rapes people on things like that!

If this stuff is realthe only reason the shuttle that blew up was not coated in a shell of this instead of them damned tiles was corporate and government greed.

[Iceman]

Assuming this Starlite does everything in the article, is it shatterproof too? Some materials that can absorb massive amounts of heat can be shattered with one whack of a hammer.

[Stormbringer]

Assuming this Starlite does everything in the article, is it shatterproof too? Some materials that can absorb massive amounts of heat can be shattered with one whack of a hammer.

the article says it's stronger than steel as well as being nearly unmeltable.

[Stormbringer]

Assuming this Starlite does everything in the article, is it shatterproof too? Some materials that can absorb massive amounts of heat can be shattered with one whack of a hammer.

the article says it's stronger than steel as well as being nearly unmeltable.

 I might add that I actually watched the original story years ago. the testimony of the independant lab analyisiss and video ofthe thermal and tensile testing. So I'm prettypuzzled by the current state of affairs.

[Ravok]

Yeah... this is really breakthrough stuff... and the gov't ALWAYS rapes people on things like that!

If this stuff is realthe only reason the shuttle that blew up was not coated in a shell of this instead of them damned tiles was corporate and government greed.

 Storm you know that they buried this little gem, in the skunk works as soon as they found out about it.

 It will be released to us, as soon as something better comes out.

[Iceman]

Assuming this Starlite does everything in the article, is it shatterproof too? Some materials that can absorb massive amounts of heat can be shattered with one whack of a hammer.

the article says it's stronger than steel as well as being nearly unmeltable.

Well then, why is my stereo not made out of this?! Let's go people chop chop!

[Stormbringer]

Yeah... this is really breakthrough stuff... and the gov't ALWAYS rapes people on things like that!

If this stuff is realthe only reason the shuttle that blew up was not coated in a shell of this instead of them damned tiles was corporate and government greed.

 Storm you know that they buried this little gem, in the skunk works as soon as they found out about it.

 It will be released to us, as soon as something better comes out.

perhaps. 

[KBF-Angel Slayer]

One reason is he wants controlling interest in any company that gets his product.  That is going a bit too far.  Why?  Because he may be one great inventor, but he may not be very good at business decisions.  Who wants to give up their company to someone else?
   If he dropped the percentage a bit, he would probably sell it a lot faster.

[Stormbringer]

according to a friend in the air force. they have this material in some highly classified projects. so the stuff is out if true. The formula will not be lost if this guy does not make a deal or dies. My friend would say no more than that for obvious reasons.

[KBF-Angel Slayer]

Well, to be honest, since the man hasn't patented it yet, if anyone could come up with a piece, they'd be millionaires overnight.  It wouldn't take long for some private company to start mass producing this stuff if it was financially possible.

[Stormbringer]

Well, to be honest, since the man hasn't patented it yet, if anyone could come up with a piece, they'd be millionaires overnight.  It wouldn't take long for some private company to start mass producing this stuff if it was financially possible.

yep. that's the risk he's taking. and a stupid one. Since it is likelyin the reach of even an amateur chemist.

[Redshift the Kook]

It's certainly strange that it has never been heard of in the mass-media. In fact there are probably many examples of this. It wouldn't suprise me if the British Ministry of Defence keep such things secret until they are needed, after all, the sooner you apply new technology to the Military the sooner another country either copies or counters it.

I'm not sure to what extent the British MoD shares its secrets with the US. 

[KBF-Angel Slayer]

Pre-EU it was pretty much open door policy.  We shared and they shared.  Since then?   It has probably changed a good bit.

[Stormbringer]

It's certainly strange that it has never been heard of in the mass-media. In fact there are probably many examples of this. It wouldn't suprise me if the British Ministry of Defence keep such things secret until they are needed, after all, the sooner you apply new technology to the Military the sooner another country either copies or counters it.

I'm not sure to what extent the British MoD shares its secrets with the US. 

I think Busniness week, Jane's, NBC, etc; count as mass media. so it has been in the mass media. I first heard about it in the mass media.

[Stormbringer]

What I find fascinating that we have not commented on was that should the formula be given to legions of professional corporate and government researchers the wierd and wonderful properties could be added to other formulations and perhaps even metallic alloys.

[KBF-Angel Slayer]

I think that was touched on lightly.  What would it do to the automobile industry?  If it is cheaper to make, it could lower costs dramatically.

[Stormbringer]

I think that was touched on lightly.  What would it do to the automobile industry?  If it is cheaper to make, it could lower costs dramatically.

what should it do? make it cheaper, of course. However that will not happen. the industry will price them the same or even more expensive and cite research costs, retooling changes, etc. You do know that the material and energy required to build a car is at most 3000 dollars? They will charge whatever price the market will bear. IOW whatever they can and still have people buy their product.

[Stormbringer]

It's certainly strange that it has never been heard of in the mass-media. In fact there are probably many examples of this. It wouldn't suprise me if the British Ministry of Defence keep such things secret until they are needed, after all, the sooner you apply new technology to the Military the sooner another country either copies or counters it.

I'm not sure to what extent the British MoD shares its secrets with the US. 

More examples of mass media coverage:  


International Defense Review
April 1, 1993


SECTION: TECHNOLOGY; Vol. 26; No. 4; Pg. 328
HEADLINE: Taking the heat astonishing results with new material
BYLINE: Pamela Pohling-Brown

BODY: Tests still continuing with a new family of materials invented by British businessman Maurice Ward have produced outstanding results in flash, blast and impact protection far beyond those of classic fire and thermal barriers. So promising is the lightweight compound, registered as "Starlite", that defense companies are eager to buy into the project.

In an exclusive interview with IDR, Ward explained that Starlight was developed in response to an air disaster in which passengers died in an aircraft burning on the runway. It consists of a variety of (organic) polymers and co-polymers with both organic and inorganic additives, including borates and small quantities of ceramics and other special barrier ingredients -- up to 21 in all. Perhaps uniquely for a thermal and blast-proof material, it is not wholly inorganic but up to 90 per cent organic,. It chars slowly and emits virtually no toxic fumes under the application of heat. It is, above all, an intelligent material, able to tailor its response to the individual stimulus applied. It thus boasts a complex palette of properties and capabilities, some of which are not yet completely understood. Damage protection is due to several simultaneous effects, including reflective scatter and absorption.

The United Kingdom Defence Research Agency (DRA) has conducted tests which give rise to hopes of a wide range of applications. Apart from protection in aircraft against fire, these include protection of cabling in navy ships, linings to contain efflux in missile launchers, coating of launch sites for advanced vertical take-off and space aircraft (HOTOL, NASP) and, possibly, coatings for spacecraft. Starlite's EMP protection capability is perhaps less currently apposite than its properties against laser damage, as underlined by Professor Sir Ronald Mason, formerly chief scientific advisor to the UK Ministry of Defence, who joined the Starlite project some 15 months ago.

At AWE (the Atomic Weapons Establishment, Foulness), Starlite withstood simulated nuclear flashes of 400kcal/cm 2 /s,(1) energy levels which normally generate temperatures of around 10,000 degree C. Tests with the DRA under NATO auspices at the White Sands missile range, New Mexico, subjected a Starlite variant to both a simulated nuclear flash and a massive simulated nuclear explosion. The material withstood both and demonstrably provided protection to a composite substrate.

At RSRE (Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, Malvern), it was subjected to pulses from visual-wavelength lasers which would have burned holes through classic polymer material almost immediately. The target set was for the material to contain and withstand 100mW/cm 2 for one 15ns pulse. The frequency-doubled ND YAG (at 532nm) and TEA Co2 (at 10.6um) lasers used were focused to 66um and 124um respectively. Starlite showed little damage to the surface, merely small pits with the approximate diameter of the beam and with little evidence of melting.

Among the responses observed are the formation of a plasma of ionized gas which provides a protective layer in front of the incident surface. The plasma forms a so-called albido reflector virtually to counter incoming laser beams. In tests, Starlite's performance improved the higher the stress applied. This may be because some of the host polymer at a given spot is vaporized by the laser pulse, increasing the level of scatter by ceramic and other particles.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 12, 1994

Note: The original JDR article had a typographical error. The tests at AWE produced temperatures of 10,000°C, not 1,000°C. The Business Week article has the correct information.


NBC News; Dateline NBC:  

Starlite Plastic Report

Dateline NBC August 24, 1993

 

Announcer: This is DATELINE NBC.  Tonight:

JANE PAULEY: (Voiceover) Stronger than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a rocket engine, able to withstand even this...(An explosion is shown)...it's Starlite.  And who invented it?  A top scientist?  Nope!

(Gun firing; rocket lifting off; Starlite title; scientist working)

Mr.  MAURICE WARD: I spent quite an amount of time doing hairdressing.

PAULEY: (Voiceover) Tonight, see how a hairdresser may change the world.

Announcer: DATELINE, with anchors Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips, with Brian Ross, Deborah Roberts, Jon Scott, Lea Thompson, Faith Daniels, and John Cochran.  

*****

Announcer: From our studios in New York, here are Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips.

STONE PHILLIPS: Good evening.  Thanks for joining us.  Science is full of accidents that produced great inventions.  Penicillin, Teflon, even cornflakes were all developed through happenstance?something developed in the lab that wasn't planned, and out of it came a product we can't do without.

JANE PAULEY: And tonight, how a little luck and hard work have brought us a new discovery.  It's a miracle substance called Starlite.  It resists flames?even the intense heat of a nuclear flash.  No one knows how valuable it will be, but as Jon Scott reports, it has a most unlikely inventor and a secret formula that a lot of people would like to get their hands on.

ONLY YOUR HAIRDRESSER KNOWS

JON SCOTT reporting: (Voiceover) North Yorkshire, England.  It's the kind of place where not much ever happens, where conversations center on the best pint and chips, but 61-year-old resident Maurice Ward is about to change all that. Ward has discovered something that could revolutionize contemporary warfare, modern industry, commercial transportation, even the space program.

(North Yorkshire, England; military equipment; rocket lifting off)

Unidentified Actor #1 ("The Graduate"): I just want to say one word to you?just one word.

Dustin Hoffman: Yes, sir?

Actor #1: Are you listening?

Dustin Hoffman: Yes, I am.

Actor #1: Plastics.

(End of file footage)

SCOTT: (Voiceover) Maurice Ward has invented a new, almost indestructible plastic.  And just who is Ward?  An award-winning chemist?  A physicist?  An aeronautical engineer?

(Mr.  Ward walking along the seaboard)

Mr.  WARD: Not really.  I spent quite an amount of time doing hairdressing.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) A hairdresser?

(Mr.  Ward sitting in a room)

Unidentified Woman #1: He used to set my hair.

Unidentified Woman #2: Well, he was a good hairdresser.  He had a good reputation.

Woman #1: I think he won a few competitions anyway.

Mr.  FRED MacMURRAY: (From file footage) I'm not sure what we've got here, Charley, but if we've got what I think we've got, we've got something.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) Like the absent-minded professor who invented Flubber, former hairdresser Maurice Ward has found his miracle.  He calls this revolutionary discovery Starlite, or my plastic, and keeps it not in a safe or an armored car, but close by his side in a simple glass jar.

(Mr.  Ward with his Starlite)

SCOTT: Looks like cake flour or plaster or something.

Mr.  WARD: Yeah, that's right.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) His plastic, Starlite, can be rigid or rubbery.  It can even be paste.  But whatever the form, when Maurice applies his invention to another surface and then applies heat to that surface?well, watch what happens.

(Scott talking with Mr.  Ward)

Mr.  WARD: And you can see...

SCOTT: (Voiceover) A plastic that refuses to burn; a discovery that any Nobel Prize-winning scientist would envy.

(Mr.  Ward demonstrating Starlite)

Mr.  WARD: The world has spent billions of pounds for the last 45 years with thousands of the top physicists and Dr.  Who?s without any success.  And I've come in, I believe, from a different angle.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) Under a butane torch at approximately 2200 degrees Fahrenheit the plastic glows red, even bubbles a bit, but it refuses to ignite.

(Mr.  Ward demonstrating Starlite)

Mr.  WARD: I move the torch away...

SCOTT: OK.

Mr.  WARD: ...like so.

SCOTT: (Touching the surface of the Starlite) You can barely feel it.

Mr.  WARD: Mm-hm.

SCOTT: Whoa!

You know what it does, but you don't necessarily know how it does what it does?

Mr.  WARD: I'm perfectly happy to say that it is what it is, and it does what it does.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) Maurice isn't the only one puzzled by its behavior.  Some of the top scientific minds in Britain and the US haven't figured it out either.

(Scenes of Great Britain are shown)

Sir RONALD MASON: We don't, still, quite understand how it works, but that it works is undoubtedly the case.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) Sir Ronald Mason is the former chief scientific adviser for the British Ministry of Defense.

(British Ministry of Defense building)

Sir MASON: I started this path with Maurice being very, very skeptical of it.  I became totally convinced of the reality of the claims.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) In America, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is interested in Maurice' plastic.  Program manager Rudy Nurangho is heading NASA's inquiries.

(Space control center; Mr.  Nurangho)

Mr.  RUDY NURANGHO: Well, the reason it makes it so special?this material?is because it does so many things, and is only one material.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) Take, for example, those troublesome space shuttle tiles?the ones that keep falling off?had Starlite been available when the shuttle was designed, it might have been a lighter and less expensive alternative to the tiles.  NASA is now eyeing Maurice' plastic for its new aerospace plane and for other uses on the shuttle.

(Space shuttle; men studying the tiles; futuristic space plane)

Mr.  NURANGHO: Any place where is heat you have applications.  Any place where is radiation?radiation coming in?it would?has applications.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) NASA's interest in Starlite was first sparked by an article in Jane's International Defense Review.  It told how Starlite, in tests, withstood the most intense forms of energy.  For example, lasers that would normally burn through half an inch of steel in a couple of seconds did little damage to the surface of Starlite.

Mr.  WARD: They went sort of five, four, three, two, one, bzzt, and nothing happened.

SCOTT: It must have amazed even you?

Mr.  WARD: Well, it did, obviously.  I was relieved.  I think they were trying to shoot my bit of Starlite down.  I didn't think it would do it.

Mr.  MacMURRAY: (From file footage) It's a breakthrough! A breakthrough!

SCOTT: (Voiceover) But Starlite's done even more than that.  It has withstood simulated nuclear flashes in tests conducted by England's Atomic Weapons Establishment and by NATO.

(Simulated nuclear flash)

Mr.  WARD: We took on the fluents of 70 kilocalories?three can vaporize a human being, OK??then took on the blast which I've seen shred an aircraft and it came back unscathed.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) There are many potential military applications.  Coat a tank or a bomber with Maurice' plastic and protect it against the most frightening weapons of the future battlefield?lasers and maybe even nuclear bombs.  Maurice focuses on more practical ideas.

(Tank; warplane)

Mr.  WARD: Every day of the week you read about some family having been burnt through a house fire, and I feel that it's something whereby we should make it available to the average family to spray up the furniture, the carpets, the curtains, whatever, to prevent that sort of thing from happening.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) Question is, how did a formula like this spring from the mind of a man who spent most of his adult life cutting and coloring the hair of the village ladies?  Well, it seems Maurice has always been somewhat of an experimenter.

(Scott talking with Mr.  Ward)

Woman #1: Oh, I remember him dying people's hair most peculiar colors.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) In the mid-70s, Maurice decided to try a new experiment, and with his family he opened a recycling business, first paper and then plastics.  It was the 1985 Manchester air disaster in which 54 people died that prompted Maurice to begin his research into fireproof plastics.

(Maurice with his family; Manchester air disaster photos)

Mr.  WARD: We realized that the people had actually been killed with the smoke and the toxic fumes rather than just the flames.  I then started to look at what I felt would be a flame retardant.  I believe it was around about Easter '86 I got my first significant piece of material which really was the forerunner of Starlite.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) Maurice took his fireproof plastic to a friend at a chemical company.  The man said it looked good in tests, but Maurice says his friend's boss didn't want to be bothered.

(ICI chemical plant)

Mr.  WARD: His boss came on and swore at me, told me to clear off, so I threw it in the cupboard for a few years.  I couldn't afford at that stage to put any more money into it.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) It's no great surprise that the former hairdresser had trouble spreading the word about his discovery.  He hadn't attended a university, had no scientific training, but Ward wouldn't give up.  He figured even if the scientific world wouldn't believe what he had done, the public would, if people could see how it worked on TV.

(Mr.  Ward walking on the beach; driving in a car)

Mr.  WARD: (Demonstrating Starlite on a TV show) It's glowing red hot, but just watch this.  If I turn the flame off?and remember that it was producing 1200 degree Celsius?if I then crack it open, what's more, the egg hasn't even begun to start cooking.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) Soon, everyone was knocking at his door.

(Mr.  Ward sitting)

Mr.  WARD: Well, a lot of people would love to have it.  A lot of people are talking.  A few people have tried to pinch it.

Unidentified Actor #3: (From file footage) Well, look who's here.  It's the professor.

Mr.  MacMURRAY: (From file footage) Careful, boys.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) In trying to pinch or steal his plastic, the companies that want it have been quite resourceful.  Maurice caught one man putting a sample down his pants.

(Scene from "The Absent-Minded Professor")

SCOTT: That little chip that you're holding in your hands there...

Mr.  WARD: Mm-hm?

SCOTT: What do you think that is, a billion dollar product?

Mr.  WARD: People have said about it being multibillion as a market value.  I mean, you?you value it for me.  The world's been searching for it.  They've spent billions of pounds on it, you know?  So what's it worth?

SCOTT: (Voiceover) It's no wonder that Maurice keeps his mixture of 21 ingredients a secret.  He refuses to patent Starlite because he doesn't want to publish the formula.  And he withstands even the most persistent inquisitions.

(Mr.  Ward demonstrating a sample of Starlite)

SCOTT: All right, Maurice, what's in it?

Mr.  WARD: I suppose a bit of flour and baking powder.

Mr.  MASON: The actual composition of Starlite is known to Maurice and one or two members of his family only.

Ms.  JANE WARD: It's all?it's all up there.  He won't let you write anything down on paper.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) Jane Ward is the third of Maurice' four daughters, and says she and the rest of the family often wish Maurice would take the best offer and be done with it.

(Jane brushing a horse with Maurice)

Ms.  WARD: We've got a bit sick of it?all the publicity, and people coming to the house and that.  We just wish we could just settle down and carry on with a bit of peace and quiet.

SCOTT: So let's say you were nearing retirement age with a billion dollar formula in your brain.  What would you do?  Probably take life easy; maybe take up golf.  Not Maurice, he's taken up a different sport?harness racing.

(Voiceover) He's traded in his barber's chair for the driver's seat of a racing sulky.  We went with him to Musselborough, Scotland, for his very first race. We'll give him credit for being a clever inventor, and we've been told he gives a fine haircut, but as a harness driver Maurice has much to learn.  Despite the cheers of his family, his horse finished way out of the money.  But then, with Starlite on the horizon, he really doesn't need to worry about money.

(Mr.  Ward harness racing)

SCOTT: The crass American question: What's the largest money offer you've received for this?

Mr.  WARD: Thirteen million pounds worth for 45 percent.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) That's about 20 million US dollars to buy less than half of Starlite's future.

(Mr.  Ward demonstrating Starlite)

Mr.  MacMURRAY: (From film footage) There's a great future in plastics.  Think about it.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) Maurice has thought about it, and hasn't made any deals because he believes the offers will get even better.

(Scott talking with Mr.  Ward)

SCOTT: You're determined not to be squashed?

Mr.  WARD: Not to be squashed, and they're not getting it for little.

SCOTT: (Voiceover) With the formula in his head, the future is in his hands. Clearly, when it comes to the making and marketing of his fireproof plastic, the former hairdresser intends to be in the driver's seat.

(Mr.  Ward riding in a surrey)

PAULEY: NASA scientists say they hope to take a look at Starlite in a few months to see if it'll work for them.

c 1993 National Broadcasting Company, Inc.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

[Stormbringer]

media reports continued:

Britain: Sunday Sun:

Copyright 1994 Sunday Sun, All Rights Reserved
Sunday Sun
April 1994
By Keith Dufton


Click Here to View a Scan of the Article


When Maurice Ward began tinkering with chemicals in a ladies' hairdressing salon he never dreamed he was on the way to revolutionizing the American space program. All the Middlesbrough hairdresser was trying to achieve was a flame retardant wig but it eventually led to the discovery of a plastic that can stop a nuclear blast.

For five years Maurice hammered on the doors of British companies pleading with them to go into partnership with him to develop the discovery. But once again we've blown it. Now the Sunday Sun can exclusively reveal that Maurice is in the process of signing an agreement with NASA. The American space agency can't wait to get their hands on Starlite. They believe it could be one of the most important discoveries of the century.

For 45 years scientists all over the world have struggled in vain to develop a substance that will deal with the energy from a nuclear flash.

Maurice Ward knocked up a plastic in the kitchen of his Hartlepool home that has survived 75 nuclear flashes in a row. The tests were done at our own Atomic Weapons Establishment?but still we are letting Starlite go across the Atlantic.

Maurice is heartbroken that he is being ignored in his own country but has finally given up and as well as doing a deal with NASA has signed several commercial agreements in the United States. By next year Maurice Ward will be making over one million pounds a day and that is just for starters. Maurice claims-and NASA agrees with him-that the potential for his discovery is endless.

A coating of Starlite could potentially make warships invulnerable to nuclear warheads and prevent aircraft interiors from catching fire. It could coat household furnishings so they would not burn. A house covered in Starlite sheeting would survive a nuclear attack?and so would the occupants.

A top official speaking from the Washington HQ of NASA told the Sunday Sun that Starlite really is as revolutionary as Maurice claims. Rudi Narango, the programme manager of the chief engineer's office, says scientists are going to have to change their thinking.

"The whole world has been educated to think steel is the strongest material and when someone says 'no it isn't' you think they are crazy. But I have seen the results of the nuclear flash tests and we are satisfied with them."

"Our guys are very curious but skeptical when someone comes along with a piece of plastic that withstands more radiation than steel. Powerful pulse lasers that cut right through very thick steel have no effect on Starlite." Rudi says the applications for NASA are immense. It could be used to cool rocket engines and coat hydraulic and fuel lines.

At the moment NASA's lawyers are locked in discussions with Maurice's solicitor over non-disclosure agreements. "The technical side is easy, it's the attorneys [issues] that are harder, says Rudi. But he doesn't blame Maurice for being careful and will be delighted if the Englishman becomes a billionaire.

Sitting in his Hartlepool home Maurice says he didn't do it for the money but to help save lives. Maurice was horrified by the Manchester air crash which killed 54 in 1985. "The problem is toxic fumes which burning plastic gives off but no one had found a solution, so I went a different way, drawing on my experiments as a hairdresser.

By 1986 Maurice had the prototype of Starlite and had a chum at ICI test it. He says one sample gave remarkable results, but before he could get the findings in writing his friend's boss told him to stop bothering him.

Maurice had given up hairdressing and gone into recycling waste plastics and with the help of his wife Eileen and daughter Carrie came up with Starlite.

"The first time we put an oxyacetylene torch to it and it wouldn't burn we couldn't believe it," says Maurice. But Maurice's dream soon turned into a nightmare. Dealing with massive companies left him disillusioned.

"Everyone was just trying to get a sample and then it would have been taken away from me," says Maurice. Maurice even turned down a offer of 13 million pounds because it would have meant him losing control of his baby.

New tests at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, at Foulness in England, were successful where they repeatedly battered it with flashes generating more than 10,000°C. "It just sat there and laughed at them," says Maurice. What was even more astonishing was that it was still cool enough to touch.

Maurice coated an egg with Starlite and then blasted it, but when he cracked it open it wasn't even cooked.

Eventually the Ministry of Defense showed an interest and subjected it to laser tests. "They gave it a beam 10 times stronger than they'd ever used on any other material and it had no effect," says Maurice.

This is backed up by the experience of Windfall Films who have just made a QED film about Maurice which goes out on BBC1 on April 27. As part of their film they put Starlite in front of one of the most powerful lasers in the country. "It reflected the energy back and blew up the laser," says Robert Davis of Windfall Films. "We captured it all on film. It was quite amazing."

Sir Ronald Mason, a former Chief Scientific Adviser to the MoD [British Ministry of Defense] who has helped Maurice deal with top scientists, is equally astounded by Starlite. "I started out very skeptical. I don't know how it works but there is no doubt it does."

What saddens Maurice is that it has not been utilized. He believes if it was already coating the insides of airplanes, many lives would have been saved.

Rudi Narango agrees: "When the inside of an aircraft ignites what kills is the toxic gases. In a plane fire you have seconds-not minutes-to get out, but Starlite could buy you time. It is extremely difficult to get it to burn and it doesn't give off toxic gases."

Maurice reckons it could give you two hours to get people out in the event of an aviation fuel fire. And Rudi says even if it only gave you another minute it may be enough.


BRITS MISS OUT ON DEAL OF CENTURY
With all the positive tests over the years why weren't British companies kicking down Maurice's door to get a deal?
"I don't know," says Maurice. "I'm amazed by how many people have tried to pour cold water on it."
The inventor believes it could be because he is a retired hairdresser who left school at 14 and the boffins don't like being beaten by an amateur.
Rudi Narango is incredulous at how tardy the Brits have been at taking up Starlite.
Now things are finally cooking for Maurice, he has set up the Maurice Ward Starlite Technology Centre in Atlanta.
He has signed a commercial deal for a leisure industry spin-off which he says guarantees him a million pounds a day from next year.
Then there is a household goods deal, an aircraft interior agreement and another five different applications?all in America.
"In America they make deals. Over here it is just bankers sitting on their arses screwing everybody for every penny they can get," claims the disgruntled inventor.
The 61-year-old father of four daughters thought up some whizzo hi-tech names for his discovery. "But four years ago my grand-daughter who was only eight said 'Why don't you call it Starlite granddad?' "
The formula is Maurice's most treasure secret and no-one know what the 21 ingredients are.
These days Maurice spends a great deal of time harness racing and trains his horses on a Hartlepool beach. If his flimsy rig was to go over and he broke his neck one of the most dramatic developments of the century would go with him. "That's tough but that's the way it is," says Maurice.

[redstorm05]

Seriously if you think about it... when it was invented in the late 1980s, that Ward wouldnt have already done anything about it?

Let me give you likely scenarios -

1. He already has made his billions from the Military. His recipe is probably shrouded in top secret files which will propbably be only opened to the public in 50-100 years
when another invention will make it vulnerable. EG- microwaves, soundwave technology or wathever to neutralise this incredible polymer.

No all he has to do, is pretend that he's not giving it up for sale unless so and so terms etc. Meanwhile, thousands of people die from fire hazards. The reason for it not being released to the public to fireproof planes, shuttles, cars, firemen suits, houses is that there is the fear of it falling into rogue states with nuclear/interbalistic capabilities which will probably kill even more people.

So for now, he'll have to live with billions of dollars, (plus royalties if he's lucky), go on vacations to secret locations that he's already bought under different names and keep up the pretense of goign to interviews etc.

Breakthrough technology is not released to the public untill another is invented to neutralise its effects. Examples - the internet, stealth fighters, etc etc.

2. He's greedy.

3. Very greedy.

[Stormbringer]

a  friend in the know says a slightly inferior formulation is in use in fielded planes and is top secret. i think they just reinvented out from under him on the sly.

[FPF-SCM_TraceyG_XC]

This stuff could solve the space shuttle tile problem

[Stormbringer]

indeed.

[Commander Maxillius]

No one else thought of plastic engines?  Absolutely no need for oil, ultra low friction, and very lightweight.   50 MPG out of a 300 hp v8?  With this stuff, no problem!!