Has the secret to Starlite been lost forever?

Who knows?

There are aerogels and there are thermal insulators, so why not have an aerogel made from something that's already a thermal insulator?

My guess would be to get some calcium silicate, figure out how to bind it with a sulfate compound to a relatively stable molecule like sucralose, and then figure a clever way to whip that into an aerogel. Like melting it down in a solvent of some sort and infusing it with an inert gas. Once it expands out and sets after the solvent evaporates... Well, that would be the time to test it out.

Seems simple and stupid. Chemicals I'd suggest aren't that uncommon and are fairly cheap.

But I'm not a chemist, nor do I have much expertise there. So don't take my random guess for much. The real formula is likely lost if not just hidden away.

I'm ready whenever you are.

Best thread in weeks

I wonder how much heat this stuff could ultimately stand? Say for instance it was poured on Fukishima's blown out reactor before being encased in concrete? You get my drift... Starlite, then lead, then concrete..... thin the reactor might be sealed, at least from above. and depending on the ability of Starlite to absorb and disperse heat..... I think you could picture some sort of application in this instance.

reply to post by PhoenixOD

He didn't have a secret. My thinking is if he did have a secret this powerful then he'd know instinctively that it belongs in the hands of humanity, not his alone.

Ask yourself: What evidence is there? Was this material independently tested?

So my feeling is he's a duck because he quacks, swims, etc...

Carl Sagan said that it's how atoms are put together that makes things special, not which atoms are in them. Maybe this is a clue about the direction materials science should go?

Still....

What if something "big" did happen, and it was released into the public domain?

Anything that's specially powerful can also be used menacingly in the wrong hands. (Anything that's markedly advanced can be dangerous.) Look at nuclear weapons, for example. That's simply exploiting the power of fission and fusion. Those two physics are extremely powerful but can be equally deadly. Governments around the world have been scrambling to prevent the acquisition of nuclear weapons and spreading of nuclear materials. This has, indirectly, slowed down the pace that we learn new and useful things about it. I think this will be true for any especially advanced technology.

Our world has a tolerance level for changing sciences and technologies. When you exceed that tolerance, there's unrest. It's like building up pressure in one spot and eventually getting fireworks. Too much change is like that. Too much change builds up in one spot and a rush of progression happens to counterbalance it. The result is an explosion of change that disrupts and harms. People conventionally believe that all change is good, but this is not true. When it happens too fast, it becomes like a speeding train with no brakes. Really, anything in excess is dangerous this way.

So maybe there's a wizard of oz out there that's keeping us all safe from destabilizing sciences. It's the gut reaction of people to let the world know about these things. But outside the veneer of what's obvious there're concerns for national security. There's a reason to keep secret certain things.

reply to post by jonnywhite


Here is a report from one of the independent tests published in the International Defence Review.

In tests at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment in Malvern, Starlite was pulsed with lasers that would normally have burned through polymer. Instead, as Pohling-Brown reported in a widely-read article in International Defence Review in 1993, 'Starlite showed little damage to the surface, merely small pits with the approximate diameter of the beam and with little evidence of melting.' Professor Keith Lewis, who led the RSRE tests, confirms that Starlite 'had unique properties which appeared to be very different to other forms of thermal barrier material available at the time.' It wasn't clear how Starlite worked: was it diffusing the heat? Absorbing it? Repelling it? 'Keith Lewis told me that it does all sorts of things,' says Ward. 'It's very complex. Millions of things are happening all at once.'

reply to post by PhoenixOD

I still say the only secret was that there was no actual starlite.

I'm basically saying I think the guy was a fraud.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan.

It's possible somebody stole it and the governments were stonewalling him. Something this extreme has too many defense concerns. He would have been an instant multi-billionaire too.

But it's also possible this was an alien artifact he found while hiking.

But Occam's Razor says that his claims and secrets involve too many gray areas.

We're over-thinking it. The obviousness is in plain site that there's no starlite.

Very cool reading

Actually this stuff isn't all that new...many European companies sell the Starlite type material.

The key is QUICK heat absorption and QUICK transfer to a secondary material which then SLOWLY
diffuses/distributes the stored heat like a slow acting radiator. Many of you order this type of material
EVERY DAY...Take standard pizza dough and pour on the tomato sauce ONLY....take a torch to it and
the tomato sauce has a ultra high thermodynamic absorption properties which QUICKLY takes in the
heat and then transfers it to the pourous pizza dough which then SLOWLY diffuses the heat thoughout.

Starlight is basically a thin upper/outer ceramic coating such as Aluminum Oxide Ceramic
and a high density polyethylene-like FOAMED thicker layer (can also use aerogels) as the backing.

The ceramic outer layer heats up quickly BUT JUST AS QUICKLY transfers the heat to the foamed backing
which then SLOWLY diffuses the heat to all corners. Since Starlight contained many ingredients used
in kitchen and bath items (as the inventor hinted in previous stories) I can probably guess that Stearates,
wax gels and poly-aramid-like organic materials are the basis of MOST of the Starlite.

I also suggest looking at Zinc Oxide or Aluminum Oxide (also called Alumina) as probably
one of the main ingredients in the fast outer heat absorption and transfer layer. Modern day computer
horsepower can be used to simulate how much the backing needs to be FOAMED in order
absorb so much BTU's or Watts per cubic inch/cubic centimetre per unit of time (i.e. one minute)
By this, I mean a corporate entity could use simple modern day (less than $10,000) computer
workstations to test the number and size of the foam bubbles NEEDED in order to obtain
a specific heat diffusion index. One can ALSO take into account hundreds of materials
to use as the foaming agent and the ceramic outer/upper FAST heat absorbing layer.

These 1000's of computer simulations would take less than 60 days to do
on most modern computer systems and would give you a RANGE of materials
and foaming configurations to use when creating fireproof construction material
or clothing. While the Starlite inventor DID stumble upon something good...he
DID NOT TAKE STARLITE'S SECRETS TO HIS GRAVE !!!! It's a matter of
using the SCIENTIFIC METHOD and lots of computer horsepower to get
something almost identical.

In fact I could do those thermodynamic simulations in my basement
since I've got lots of IBM/Sony Cell workstation boards sitting there with
almost 2 TeraFLOPS (2 trillion floating point operations per second)
of double-precision computer horsepower available for running
thermodynamic modelling and simulation.

You can do it too..just .buy 5 cheap Sony Playstation 3's and cluster
them together and solder extra RAM to the motherboards and
you've got yourself a SUPER-COMPUTER that could EASILY
run almost any type of materials science model and simulation.

OR...you could look up Wikipedia and relatd websites which give detailed instructions
on how make almost identical materials to Starlite.!!!!!!

reply to post by StargateSG7


There was no foamed backing to Starlite it was a powdered material that could be made into a variety of forms. As a powder it could be added to other materials like paint or plastics.

it is said to contain 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

reply to post by PhoenixOD


I should have prefaced my post with the caveat that FOAMING IS ONE OF THE BEST WAYS to create
an excellent heat absorbing/diffusing material. Indeed, Starlight is rumoured to look a lot like kitty litter
under a microscope...being very porous and probably hydroscopic (i.e. liquid absorbing).

On a technical basis Starlight-type materials are USUALLY foamed in order to make a stiff board-like material
which can be used in walls, floors, and in general construction. Even CONCRETE can be foamed and infused
with plasticizers and alumina to form a STRONG and extremely heat resistant material.

Sea the following:

Harsh Climate Foamed Concrete:
cematrix.com...

Cheap suppliers of thermo-foamed ceramic:
www.alibaba.com...

Really Awesome Starlite type stuff:
www.ultramet.com...

5000 Degree F graphites:
www.graphitestore.com...

Ultra High Temperature Ceramics:
etd.library.vanderbilt.edu...

In terms of other materials used for super-heat resistance that can be made into pastes or powders
include Zirconium Boro-Silicates or Boro-Carbides. One can also add Molybdenum for metallicizing
and strengthening the paste.

Its all out there on the web if you want Starlite-type material recipes.

Here is a link to a 45 min radio interview with Maurice Ward about starlite that is very interesting and goes into a lot more detail that all the videos ive posted on the subject so far.

It explains all the testing done by numerous companies throughout the world as well as the reasons why he was finding it so hard to bring the product to market. Its seems the UK government was trying to tax the product so heavily that it wasn't worth producing in the first place.

Radio interview MP3 46mins

Originally posted by Druscilla

This whole post really upsets me. How can anyone be so selfish?
...

You do not know how such a coating would be used, what if it made military units much less susceptible to nuclear airbursts? would you be comfortable with a single group or nation having that advantage? you have no idea how everything will play out, so maybe letting such a secret be forgotten is a world altering decision based on wisdom rather than greed.

Originally posted by satron
It's a shame that it never seen the light of day.

Greed on both sides did the material in.

On a side note, I think this illustrates how companies won't pursue something revolutionary for mankind if it isn't profitable for them.

*COUGH cure for cancer COUGH!*

cure for cancer?...concentrated "avastin" developed by genetech, sold to roche...now diluted down, and used as a "maintenence" drug

any type of new and beneficial invention will be bought up and hidden by governments and corporations. unless there is world wide release of the invention and it's details to hundreds of different media outlets and on websites.
i believe they have cures, cheap energy, life and money saving devices...etc., that will never be released to the general population. it's NOT about inovation, it's about money.

Originally posted by jonnywhite
reply to post by PhoenixOD

 

I still say the only secret was that there was no actual starlite.

I'm basically saying I think the guy was a fraud.

Nope.

I watched some of these demo's on TV, on the show Tomorrows World here in the UK.

Not faked at all. The real thing.

reply to post by Long Lance


It's nice of you to just pick certain points and ignore others.

I made statements regarding initial release to favored clients, and then worldwide release to everyone else.

If everyone has it, you've got a level playing field, and BigCorpWhateverName wouldn't have sole exclusive control, so, anyone could benefit.

This can be applied to anything. Sure, if one exclusive party had access to free energy, nuclear bombs, time machines, or anything imaginable, there would for sure be a disparity.
If, however, everyone had insert X here, then, well, everyone has it, and there's a level playing field where some will use X irresponsibly while others do.

Anyone can turn any motor vehicle into a killing machine just by running people over, and there are incidents of accidents that occur every day. Almost everyone, however, has a motor vehicle, so, there's not some concern over one nation using their fleet of Toyota, Chevrolet, Ford, Mercedes, and other such vehicles to overthrow a horse and buggy nation.

Originally posted by Druscilla
reply to post by Long Lance

 

It's nice of you to just pick certain points and ignore others.

I made statements regarding initial release to favored clients, and then worldwide release to everyone else....

good luck guaranteeing that, if the net result makes nuclear proof paint available to one nation, guess how that advantage would be used?!

btw: i address the points i find important, it's not like the scenario of losing the recipe to a single entity then dying 'unexpectedly' is that far fetched.

reply to post by jonnywhite


I very much doubt it was an alien artifact, unless he was able to amazingly retro-engineer / understand it's root components / had an alien to teach him...

I'm going with a madcap inventor type, with shades of Tesla possibly stumbling onto the right track, then denying the western world it's rightful bounty...

After doing some more research into what happened to Starlite ive come to realize that its not all Maurice's fault that this never came to market. It seems that in the last few years of his life he had been in serious talks with Boeing about selling the product. While this was going on Boeing insisted that he kept quiet about Starlite, he was told not to give any more interviews. Then Boeing just dragged their feet for 6 years and nothing got done.

Reading through, I notice that many people doubt that Starlite really existed, or think that it might have been faked in some way.

I saw it demonstrated years ago, long before the era of TV special effects of the kind that Chris Angel or David Copperfield use. They painted the stuff onto the side of a raw egg and held an acetylene torch flame up to it for a few seconds. That procedure would normally be expected to explode the egg or burn through its shell almost instantly. They took away the torch and the egg was undamaged and still raw inside when they cracked it.

I think this guy took his secret to the grave just like Edward Leedskalnin (Coral Castle) did.

As far as I could tell the stuff was not as thin as paint, but thicker, more like liquid yogurt, but a darker color, like brown, if I remember correctly. They only painted a thin layer of it on the egg.