GLASS FOR FROCKS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10752, 24 November 1928, Page 11

GLASS FOR FROCKS

MANY CLAIMS FOR NEW SUBSTANCE.

LIVERPOOL, Sept. 27. Liverpool citizens, including the Lord Mayor, Councillor Margaret Boavan, to-day made ineffectual attempts to break a substance which in the future, it is claimed, may displace glass. The substance which has not 3 T et. been named but may be called PJass, is light in weight, but it does not break when dropped on the floor or struck with a hammer. It not only admits light, but also, it is declared, ultra-violet rays.

Although the specimen pieces on view at Liverpool 'University to-day seemed quite good enough to the ordinary individual for window purposes, Prof. R. E. C. Baly, holder of the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry, who is ■ doing research work in connection with the substance, told me that he does not consider it is good enough to be placed on the market yet. A factory is being built in Nottingham, and in two or three months articles such as electric light wall plugs will be manufactured there. Dr. B/ily explained: There are three directions in which the stuff is being developed. The first- is the glass side. Secondly, we can get the substance in a powder, and then press it into a riiould which is heated. Such articles as electric, light switches and covers can be made from it. Thirdly, a company at Northampton is using the stuff to decorate dross materials such as velvet and cotton voile. When the substance is like treacle patterns are made with the aid of needles, and after it. hardens it will not pull off. as it is right through the material.