In 1982 Dr. Roy J. Plunkett, the inventor
of Teflon, and his former roommate at Manchester College, Dr. Paul J. Flory,
Nobel Prize Winner in chemistry (1974), were among the distinguished chemists
who gathered at Chestertown, Maryland, to help Washington College celebrate
its "200 years of chemistry."
After Dr. Charles Suckling, director of research for ICI in England,
had delivered a talk on the invention of Fluothane, the anesthetic which
had finally driven chloroform and ether from the operating rooms of hospitals
around the world, there was an informal reception at the College's Hynson-Ringgold
House, hosted by Ann McLain, wife of the former College President, Dr. Joseph
H. McLain. I was seated at a table with Mrs. McLain, Plunkett and Flory
when a lady from the Maryland Historical Society came to our table, just
as Mrs. McLain was leaving to greet some other guests. The lady historian
said her name was Joan Harbon, and that she wished to meet the inventor
of Teflon. |
Plunkett promptly asked her to join us at our table and she accepted
just as promptly and said she had a question for the inventor of Teflon.
"We all know," she said, "that nothing sticks to Teflon,
but if that is so how do they get Teflon to stick to a frying pan, a raincoat,
or the cover on a football stadium?"
Plunkett laughed and said her question was one he heard nearly everywhere
he went. "In fact," he said, "the same question was asked
by someone at Washington College in 1976, the year I came here for an honorary
degree."
He said he had several answers to the question depending on who asked
it and how much time he would have to give an answer. "My shortest
answer consists of just three words-with great difficulty-but I guess you
are looking for something more than that." |
"If the question is asked by a physicist, Miss Harbon," Plunkett
said, "I feel compelled to say something about electron clouds around
the fluorine atom, surface free energy, entropy, enthalpy and some other
stuff which I don't really understand myself. So if I have a physical chemist
who has won a Nobel Prize, like Paul Flory, sitting right next to me, I
try to turn the question over to him. Can you take over for me, Paul?"
Plunkett grinned when he said that and looked at Flory who grinned
back and said "Keep talking, Roy. You are doing fine."
Plunkett then turned to the lady historian and asked: "Do you want
to hear any more about entropy, enthalpy and surface free energy?"
And when she smiled and shook her head he reached inside his inner coat
pocket, pulled out a small card and said: "Well, I'll try to give an
organic chemist's explanation of why nothing sticks to Teflon but Teflon |
