Regrettable Materials
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POSTERMINARIES
Regrettable Materials Materials science is an enabling profession. We design, tailor, and improve the materials from which every engineering device is made—we’re good at it and we’re proud of it. Every thoughtful engineer, industrialist, and government official agrees with this analysis, although we cannot and must not stop repeating it to them every time we get the chance. Because ours is a proud and confident profession, sure of its place in society, we can of course admit to having made a few mistakes in our early days. I don’t imagine that any of us are happy with the choice of a steel with too high a ductile–brittle transition temperature for Liberty ships 60 years ago (except as a good set of examples for our classes on how not to do it!). Equally, we don’t want to boast about having recommended high-alumina cement to bridge-builders around the world until we discovered in the 1970s its tendency to lose strength as it ages. Nor are we delighted that we failed to spot that one of the cheapest materials for thermal insulation— asbestos—has common variants which can induce lung diseases. Film buffs regret that early movies are on celluloid, which is degradable and flammable. However, these were all errors born of too little knowledge and understanding, and over my lifetime we have done a great deal to rectify that deficit. Less easily excusable but equally regrettable are several other materials choices. These result from the drive to reduce price, often combined with a total lack of taste or a misjudgment of function. In this category I include all clothing made solely from nylon. What a pity the use of nylon could not have been delayed until we knew how to reduce its sheen, improve its feel, and modify its propensity to attract static and cling. At least we have overcome that hurdle, and modern fibers are more subtle. But why is it that half the shirts I buy form creases easily, and ironing does not seem to remove them? The other half are fine: The problem is that, as with advertising, I don’t know which half works until after I’ve spent the money! Another horribly regrettable material is chewing gum. Many cities of the world (and even the street outside my house) appear to be paved with sticky grey polka dots. At times it is like walking on Velcro. And now Singapore appears to be relaxing its most sensible
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prohibition—on the sale of chewing gum. Where is the world going? Another whole area of materials abuse is associated with packaging. The only certainty about packaging materials is that someone, sometime, is going to need to remove them! Why then does so much packaging require a tool-not-readily-athand in order to open it? Particularly
Because ours is a proud and confident profession, sure of its place in society, we can admit to having made a few mistakes in our early days. frustrating are thin films that fit the contours of the packaged object so closely that you cannot even insert a tool without the risk of damaging your cherished purchase. For some reason, smoked mackerel fillets
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