Wilbert and Robert Gore
As everyone knows, polymers are flexible. So much so that in one case, what started out as plumbers’ joint-sealing tape has revolutionsed the world of camping, fishing, hiking and other outdoor pursuits.
The material in question of course is Gore-Tex, developed by a family of chemical engineers-cum-innovators – specifically, the father-and-son team Bill and Bob Gore. Wilbert ‘Bill’ Gore had spent 16 years working for DuPont, during which time he’d become involved with the company’s fluorochemicals business, where he was working on PTFE – commonly known as Teflon. Bill was convinced that Teflon had potential beyond non-stick frying pans.
PTFE has outstanding electrical properties and can withstand extreme temperatures without getting brittle, so Bill, working after hours in his basement, developed it as an electrical wire insulator. The product worked, Bill quit his job, and the resulting Multi-Tet cable was so useful in the early computer industry it even made it to the Moon landings.
PTFE’s transformation from spacefaring insulator to fisherman’s friend came courtesy of Bill’s son Bob, who was trying to stretch extruded polymer to create a material fit for the aforementioned plumbing tape. The material refused to cooperate, no matter how carefully Bob tried to stretch it. The breakthrough came when Bob gave it a fast, hard yank – perhaps out of frustration – and much to his surprise found it had stretched by a factor of 1,000. Quite accidentally, he had created microporous PTFE, a honeycomb-like material which, because it contains 70% air, is a first-rate insulator. Not only that but its fine pores created a fabric that was wind- and waterproof and yet remained breathable.
Once the inevitable teething troubles were straightened out, Gore-Tex was set to become the ubitquitous outdoor material it is today, found in everything from all-weather clothing for skiing, golfing or dogwalking to surgical implants and even dental floss and guitar strings.
Full article published in: tce 840, June 2011