Author: Robby Berman / Source: Big Think
- A professional hairdresser and amateur chemist invented an unbelievably heat-resistant coating called Starlite.
- Military applications brought governments running, but the inventor’s odd negotiating style ruined discussions.
- Was Starlite lost when he died, or had it already been stolen?
Maurice Ward was a ladies hairdresser and amateur chemist from Hartlepool, Yorkshire, England, and in 1986 he invented a startling plastic coating he called Starlite. Demonstrated on BBC’s Tomorrow’s World in 1990, Starlite was immediately recognized as a game-changing substance scientists and military personnel had been dreaming of: A material so heat-resistant that it could provide a shield from the heat of nuclear blasts. Up to 75 nuclear blasts, according to Ward. Convinced Starlite could make him rich — and paranoid about his ability protect his formula — Ward never patented his invention so as to avoid publishing its secrets. Alas, however, Ward proved impossible to negotiate with, continually changing his asking price and being extremely difficult about loaning samples for testing. The governmental agencies and industries that rushed to acquire the rights and formula for his mysterious invention all failed, ultimately taking with them the massive payday Ward anticipated. Ward died in 2011.
Starlite’s introduction to the world
On that long-ago Tomorrow’s World episode, a Starlite-coated egg was subjected to a ridiculous amount of heat and, though it became charred, it was eventually cracked open to reveal a completely pristine yolk utterly unaffected by exposure to heat.
BBC has recently released a set of videos about Starlite, reported by Lee Johnson, called Searching for Starlite. The first segment includes a clip of the material’s momentous debut and talks a bit about Starlite’s eccentric inventor.Stumbling into Starlite
Ward’s daughter, Nicky Ward McDermott, says Ward got involved with scientific experiments at home as part of his work producing his successful and unique line of women’s wigs.
He’d begun working on Starlite in response to the British Airtours Flight 28M…
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