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James Wright (inventor)
James Gilbert E. Wright (March 25, 1874 – August 20, 1961) was a Scottish-born inventor, researcher and chemical engineer at General Electric who invented Silly Putty in 1943 while looking for a replacement for rubber. The invention of Nutty Putty, later renamed Silly Putty, happened accidentally. During World War II, the United States could not obtain natural rubber from Asian suppliers, who gathered it from Hevea brasiliensis, rubber trees. The General Electric Company was under a government contract to create an inexpensive substitute for synthetic rubber for the war effort. James Wright, an engineer at General Electric's New Haven laboratory, was working with silicone oil—a clear, gooey compound composed of silicon bonded to several other elements. By substituting silicon for carbon, the main element in rubber, Wright hoped to create a new compound with all the flexibility and bounce of rubber. In 1943, Wright made a surprising discovery. He mixed boric acid with silicone oi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energy, digital industry, additive manufacturing and venture capital and finance, but has since divested from several areas, now primarily consisting of the first four segments. In 2020, GE ranked among the Fortune 500 as the 33rd largest firm in the United States by gross revenue. In 2011, GE ranked among the Fortune 20 as the 14th most profitable company, but later very severely underperformed the market (by about 75%) as its profitability collapsed. Two employees of GE – Irving Langmuir (1932) and Ivar Giaever (1973) – have been awarded the Nobel Prize. On November 9, 2021, the company announced it would divide itself into three investment-grade public companies. On July 18, 2022, GE unveiled the brand names of the companies it will ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with other atoms when it forms chemical compounds or molecules. Description The combining capacity, or affinity of an ...—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent bond, covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon makes up only about 0.025 percent of Earth's crust. Three Isotopes of carbon, isotopes occur naturally, Carbon-12, C and Carbon-13, C being stable, while Carbon-14, C is a radionuclide, decaying with a half-life of about 5,730 years. Carbon is one of the Timeline of chemical element discoveries#Ancient discoveries, few elements known since antiquity. Carbon is the 15th Abundance of elements in Earth's crust, most abundant element in the Earth's crust, and the Abundance of the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxidation
Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is the gain of electrons or a decrease in the oxidation state. There are two classes of redox reactions: * ''Electron-transfer'' – Only one (usually) electron flows from the reducing agent to the oxidant. This type of redox reaction is often discussed in terms of redox couples and electrode potentials. * ''Atom transfer'' – An atom transfers from one substrate to another. For example, in the rusting of iron, the oxidation state of iron atoms increases as the iron converts to an oxide, and simultaneously the oxidation state of oxygen decreases as it accepts electrons released by the iron. Although oxidation reactions are commonly associated with the formation of oxides, other chemical species can serve the same function. In hydrogenation, C=C (and other) bonds ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Photographic Film
Photographic film is a strip or sheet of transparent film base coated on one side with a gelatin photographic emulsion, emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The sizes and other characteristics of the crystals determine the sensitivity, contrast, and image resolution, resolution of the film. The emulsion will gradually darken if left exposed to light, but the process is too slow and incomplete to be of any practical use. Instead, a very short exposure (photography), exposure to the image formed by a camera lens is used to produce only a very slight chemical change, proportional to the amount of light absorbed by each crystal. This creates an invisible latent image in the emulsion, which can be chemically photographic processing, developed into a visible photograph. In addition to visible light, all films are sensitive to ultraviolet light, X-rays, gamma rays, and particle radiation, high-energy particles. Unmodified silver halide crys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celluloid
Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common contemporary uses are table tennis balls, musical instruments, combs, office equipment, and guitar picks. History Nitrocellulose Nitrocellulose-based plastics slightly predate celluloid. Collodion, invented in 1848 and used as a wound dressing and an emulsion for photographic plates, is dried to a celluloid like film. Alexander Parkes The first celluloid as a bulk material for forming objects was made in 1855 in Birmingham, England, by Alexander Parkes, who was never able to see his invention reach full fruition, after his firm went bankrupt due to scale-up costs. Parkes patented his discovery as Parkesine in 1862 after realising a solid residue remained after evaporation of the solvent from photographic collodion. Parkes patented it as a clothi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ad Week
''Adweek'' is a weekly American advertising trade publication that was first published in 1979. ''Adweek'' covers creativity, client–agency relationships, global advertising, accounts in review, and new campaigns. During this time, it has covered various shifts in technology, including cable television, the shift away from commission-based agency fees, and the Internet. As the second-largest advertising-trade publication, its main competitor is ''Advertising Age''. ''Adweek'' also operates various blogs focusing on the advertising and mass media industry, including its flagship ''AdFreak'' blog and the Adweek Blog Network, which was formed from the assets of Mediabistro. Related publications include ''Adweek Magazine's Technology Marketing'' (ISSN 1536-2272), and ''Adweek's Marketing Week'' (ISSN 0892-8274). [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American International Toy Fair
The North American International Toy Fair (formerly the American International Toy Fair and also known as Toy Fair New York) is an annual toy industry trade show held in mid-February in New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and at toy showrooms around the city. The event is open to the toy trade only – toy industry professionals, retailers, and press representatives. It is produced by The Toy Association. Toy Fair New York's promoters describe it as the largest toy trade show in the Western hemisphere. History Toy Fair began in February 1903. The first event featured less than ten toy companies with Lionel trains among the featured products. As the event expanded, more space was needed which led to toy companies occupying 200 Fifth Avenue, a former hotel site, in 1910. By 1925, it was renamed the International Toy Center. The 117th annual Toy Fair, held February 22–25, 2020 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, attracted tens of thousands of play innovato ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boric Acid
Boric acid, more specifically orthoboric acid, is a compound of boron, oxygen, and hydrogen with formula . It may also be called hydrogen borate or boracic acid. It is usually encountered as colorless crystals or a white powder, that dissolves in water, and occurs in nature as the mineral sassolite. It is a weak acid that yields various borate anions and salts, and can react with alcohols to form borate esters. Boric acid is often used as an antiseptic, insecticide, flame retardant, neutron absorber, or precursor to other boron compounds. The term "boric acid" is also used generically for any oxoacid of boron, such as metaboric acid and tetraboric acid . History Orthoboric acid was first prepared by Wilhelm Homberg (1652–1715) from borax, by the action of mineral acids, and was given the name ("sedative salt of Homberg"). However boric acid and borates have been used since the time of the ancient Greeks for cleaning, preserving food, and other activities. Molecular a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silicon
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic table: carbon is above it; and germanium, tin, lead, and flerovium are below it. It is relatively unreactive. Because of its high chemical affinity for oxygen, it was not until 1823 that Jöns Jakob Berzelius was first able to prepare it and characterize it in pure form. Its oxides form a family of anions known as silicates. Its melting and boiling points of 1414 °C and 3265 °C, respectively, are the second highest among all the metalloids and nonmetals, being surpassed only by boron. Silicon is the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, but very rarely occurs as the pure element in the Earth's crust. It is widely distributed in space in cosmic dusts, planetoids, and planets as various forms of silicon dioxide ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silly Putty
Silly Putty is a toy based on silicone polymers that have unusual physical properties. It bounces, but it breaks when given a sharp blow, and it can also flow like a liquid. It contains a viscoelastic liquid silicone, a type of non-Newtonian fluid, which makes it act as a viscous liquid over a long time period but as an elastic solid over a short time period. It was originally created during research into potential rubber substitutes for use by the United States in World War II. The name ''Silly Putty'' is a trademark of Crayola LLC. Other names are used to market similar substances from other manufacturers. Description As a bouncing putty, Silly Putty is noted for its unusual characteristics. It bounces but breaks when given a sharp blow; it can also float in a liquid and will form a puddle given enough time. Silly Putty and most other retail putty products have viscoelastic agents added to reduce the flow and enable the putty to hold its shape. The original coral-colored S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silicone Oil
A silicone oil is any liquid polymerized siloxane with organic side chains. The most important member is polydimethylsiloxane. These polymers are of commercial interest because of their relatively high thermal stability, lubricating, and Liquid dielectric, dielectric properties. Structure Like all siloxanes (e.g., hexamethyldisiloxane), the polymer backbone consists of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms (...Si−O−Si−O−Si...). Many groups can be attached to the tetravalent silicon centres, but the dominant substituent is methyl or sometimes phenyl. Many silicone liquids are linear polymers end-capped with trimethylsilyl groups. Other silicone liquids are cyclosiloxanes. Applications Silicone oils are primarily used as lubricants, thermic fluid oils or hydraulic fluids. They are excellent electrical insulators and, unlike their carbon analogues, are non-flammable. Their temperature stability and good heat-transfer characteristics make them widely used in laboratories for he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Haven
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Connecticut after Bridgeport and Stamford and the principal municipality of Greater New Haven, which had a total 2020 population of 864,835. New Haven was one of the first planned cities in the U.S. A year after its founding by English Puritans in 1638, eight streets were laid out in a four-by-four grid, creating the "Nine Square Plan". The central common block is the New Haven Green, a square at the center of Downtown New Haven. The Green is now a National Historic Landmark, and the "Nine Square Plan" is recognized by the American Planning Association as a National Planning Landmark. New Haven is the home of Yale University, New Haven's biggest taxpayer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
