6 April 17

Happy Teflon® Discovery Day! If you were alive around 1960 I am sure you remember the popularization of "No-Stick!" cookware, featuring the amazingly wonderful space-age coating called Teflon®. My tie is brown to match the original coloring of the cookware, and Beth suggested that the knot should be falling apart to symbolize easy slipping. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) was discovered "by accident" on this date in 1938, when a container for tetrafluroethylene gas had the expected weight but showed zero pressure. Inside the cylinder, Dr. Roy J. Plunkett found a white waxy solid substance with very peculiar chemical properties, especially being "the most slippery material in existence." It took about twenty years of research and development to figure out how to make this incredibly non-sticky stuff stick to anything else!