Ivory Substitutes
By Dave McNally
Greetings All,
A couple years ago I recall hearing noises in the press about an ivory substitute, specifically for keytops, being developed and patented.
I can't vouch for all these details, but if memory serves:
It seems an engineer/pianist involved in plastics manufacturing scrutinized samples of ivory under a microscope. The point was to find out why real ivory has the nice dry feel so lacking with plastic.
He observed the porous structure with an eye toward duplicating it artificially. The result was to create a mix of some suitable base plastic with a granular material having a much higher melting temperature. The granularity approximated the average size of the pores in ivory, and its concentration the density.
The mix was injection-molded into thin sheets suitable for keytops. After molding, the sheets were subjected to a bath of something which dissolved the granular particles, leaving behind a porous plastic sheet which had the appearance and feel of ivory, except for the distinct grain patterns.
At the time, I seem to recall Steinway's name figuring prominently in the article, presumably in regard to the patent. Since then, I've seen no mention of it, and no listing of such a material in supply house catalogs. I'd expect a big splash made of it there.
* Does anyone know what became of this?
* Did Steinway patent and shelve it to prevent competition?
* Do THEY use it now, or did it vanish?
I read that article in Science News on Prodigy at the time, so it probably came from AP or UPI, in case anyone has access to archives.
Best regards to Jody and list members. Thanks for providing so much never-ending enlightenment.
--
Dave McNally - mac366@ids.net |
(Message sent Tue 7 May 1996, 18:50:10 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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