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A moment of silence.

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 9:42 am
by aconsola
A moment of silence for a guy you've probably never heard of. I know I hadn't before seeing the obit.
Interesting back story. Thanks to him a little piece of me will never be away from my workbench ;)
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/28/super.glue.obit/index.html

(CNN) -- Harry Wesley Coover, best-known as the inventor of Super Glue, has died at his home in Kingsport, Tennessee, a funeral home there said Sunday.

He was 94.

The cause of death was congestive heart failure.

Coover got the idea for Super Glue during a lab accident while working for Eastman Kodak, said Hamlett-Dobson Funeral Homes.

He was studying compounds for use in optically perfect gun sights and impact-resistant jet canopies when an assistant complained that new refractometer prisms were wrecked because they got glued together, according to the funeral home.

In fact, cyanoacrylate -- the chemical name for the glue -- was rejected by researchers at first because it bound everything together. But Coover saw its potential.

The glue was first sold as a commercial product in 1958, according to the Super Glue Corp.'s website. It has since become synonymous with curiously powerful adhesives.

Coover was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation last year for his work.

He is survived by two sons, a daughter and four grandchildren.

Re: A moment of silence.

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:15 am
by shodog
Neat back story, I always thought it was developed to close wounds on the battlefield

Re: A moment of silence.

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:37 am
by tamiyadan
.

Re: A moment of silence.

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 2:31 pm
by CamplinP
I did read that. What a great discovery. It sounds like he led a good long life. I wish one of my mistakes could end up making somthing cool instead of just a mess. :)

Re: A moment of silence.

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 2:33 pm
by treehugger
tamiyadan wrote:That stuff is a life saver as well, i used it to close a sever leg wound once in the middle of no where, stopped blood loss, and got a friend to a hospital. we were spelunking when he fell 25 feet onto sharp rocks, and tourniquet was not working, lucky me I used my R/C car Backpack took all the car stuff out and packed it with food, water, batteries and supplies, and left a pack of tools and glue in the outer compartment. This happened 20 years ago in Arizona :(.

he was fine, and before it happened and since it happened i still use the glue instead of a band-aid when i cut my hands open on sharp metal.
cool save ,i use it for wounds as well great invention . RIP

Paul

Re: A moment of silence.

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:29 pm
by fordtransman
I keep a vial of super glue in the top drawer of my tool box next to bandaids too.. I cant begin to tell you how unforgivingly sharp transmissions are.

Re: A moment of silence.

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 3:04 am
by tamiya
glad to know i'm not the only looney with a fresh bottle of CA in my 1st aid kit.

(hang on, that IS MY 1st aid kit!!)