Evening star., 1938-10-16
N. |. I. DISCOVERS
PURE CLAY PAPER
New Law of Nature Barred
to Make Possible Durable
Material.
BY HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE.
Associated Press Science Editor.


CAMBRIDGE, Mass, Oct. 15.-A
new material has been created at the
Massa achusetts Institute Of Technology.
1t looks like paper. But no fire
burns it, no acid corrodes it. 1t is
good for writing, printing, wrapping,
can be made transparent as glass.
1t is odorless, tasteless, promising 4
hundred practical uses.
The new stuff is nothing but thin
film Of pure clay. No binder holds the
particles together. Its making comes
from discovery of new law Of nature.
The clay particles are all below the
limit visible in an ordinary microscope
They attach, end to end, to form long
threads They do this automatically,
something it had been supposed only
living or organic substances could do.
Woman Aids Experiment.
This natural miracle first came to
light in small, glass jar, about the
size of a mans thumb The event
happened in the laboratory of DR..
Ernst A. Hauser, associate professor
Of chemical engineering. His COLA
borator was Dr. D. s. LIE Beau, q slim,
young blond, blue-eyed woman chem
ist working as guest of the institute.
For months they had been inves-
tigating the particles which form
bentonite clay. Bentonite is a peculiar
substance 1t can be bought for
cent pound, is the largest item in
foundry moulding, and also ingredient
in tooth paste. face powders and
beauty masks.
Bentonite also does something else,
that look like magic. Mixed with
water it forms viscous liquid. The
liquid solidifies when standing. But
give it one shake, and the mud truns
LIQUID again. The oil fields use this
mixture to make drilling muds."
An important reason for studying
bentonite was the fact that it is an
abundant American raw material.
wyoming, South Dakota, California,
Florida and Oklahoma are among
the producing States.
To anyone looking through DR..
Hausers ultra microscope, the fine
clay particles would have appeared
ii be alive. Placed in drops Of
liquid, they darted about increasingly.
Their movement was Unidentified as
brownian motion.
This motion Is commonly seen in
smoke and liquid suspensions Of very
fine particles The cause is molecules
spending their inherent energies by
humping against the supended solid
Particles.
DR.. Hauser also discovered another
motion in the clay particles, which
is new. Now and then one would
speed through the other particles like
a shooting star. This was attributed
to recoil following breakup of still
smaller particles that had formed
little crystals
All this was Of scientific interest.
There was no apparent practical value.
But further interesting scientific fact
led to discovery of the film. 1t was
known that this clay would absorb
about 10 times its own volume of
water. A little Of the water. DR..
Hauser found, adhered so tightly to
the particles as to be virtually solid.
Sought Dry Weight.
This brought the experiments, one
day last November, to the point of dry
ing some Of the solution to learn the
dry weight of the clay 1t contained.
The thumb-size jar was filled with
the wet jelly clay When the mass
dried, it shrank to a mere lining,
sticking to the interior walls and
bottom Of the jar. DR.. Hauser placed q
finger tip in the jar and pressed
against the clay lining.
To his astonishment, this Aim of
earth did not crumble. 1t came loose
as II it had been cut out of paper and
shaped to fit the interior. Removed
from the jar, it stod on his desk, a
perfect model of the glass.
Further ultra microscopic examina-
ton showed that the clay formed
threads and that these matted to build
up true fabric. But this inorganic"
thread-making was unlike anything
previously known. The clay particles
did not grow like crystals.
Under the ultra Microscope, each
particle lined up to touch the end