Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-04-08
Plastic Smoke Clouds
May Aid Space Study
BY WILLIAM HINES
Star Science writer

BOSTON, April 8.-The same
foamy plastics that make
household sponges and chill
dren's toys may soon take to
the upper atmosphere and outer
space as new weapons in mans
conquest Of nature.
Tie plastics, transformed
into smoky clouds that are
lighter than air, were de-
scribed before the American
Chemical Society today by Miss
Betty Lou Raskin of Baltimore.
She heads plastics research and
development at the Johns Hop
kins University Radiation Lab
oratory.
Part of Air Force Project
The attractive young chemist
said her work was being sup
ported by the Air Force as part
Of a larger Johns Hopkins prof.
ect. Air Force interest, she said,
seemed to be in using the i'm
proved smokes for signaling
and screening purposes. But,
she added, everyone who puts
his mind to it comes up with
other possible uses.
The material differs from
ordinary smokes in two re-
spects: First, the new particles
are much larger, and second,
they are much lighter. Thus.
their "fallout" rate-the time
it takes them to return to the
grounds hundreds Of times
slower than is the case with
regular smoke, Miss Raskin
said.
"CIouded" by Hot Gas
To make her ''floke" - a
coined word made up from
"foamed plastic smoke" Miss
Raskin injects the ingredients
of a plastic-like urethane or
phenol- formaldehyde foam into
a stream of hot gas. The plas-
tic material comes out in the
form of a dense but practical
~ weightless cloud. The weight
of the foam cloud can be reg
ulated by the nature of the
gas used. A "floke" generated
in heliun, Miss Raskin said,
would be many times lighter
than air.
Urethane plastic, such as is
used in household sponges,
produces a colorless smoke
which can be tinted by adding
dyes. Phenol formaldehyde
turns naturally into a pink
cloud.
"You could use it for sky
writing" Miss Raskin said. She
explained that the plastic ma
terials could be injected into
the exhaust Of a Jet plane to
produce q long-lasting sky
written advertisement.
Miss Raskin would not COM
|ment on the social desirability
of such a use for her invention.
Better Uses Suggested
In any case, she said, there
have been many more valuable
uses suggested. A few:
Rainmaking. Plastic crystals,
she believes, could be made the
size, shape and specific gravity
of ice crystals, thus giving
cloud moisture a more mat
ural" nucleus for condensation
than the commonly used cloud
seeder, silver iodide.
Crop warming. The smokes
could substitute for Smudge
pots in providing a blanket Of
warm, moist air around FROST
threatened crops. The light
weight of the smoke particles
would make them settle more !
slowly than the carbon par
ticles in smudge.
Radio communication. The
smoke particles could easily be
coated with q metal like alumni
mum and injected above the
radio-reflecting layers in the
ionoSphere to improve COM
Imunication or to insure COM
munication in time of disrup-
ton by sunSpots.
Satellite tracking. Metalized
"flokes" similar to those used
for radio communication could
be released from earth satel-
lites to provide more accurate
geodetic observations by radar.
The way patterns would distort
with time would provide addi-
tional scientific information.
SmOg control. Relatively
large fioke PARTICLES could be