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STAMP SANDS TURNEDINTO FIBERGLASS s0Although it seems rather unlike- se ly, President Carter's new energy ki coqservation plan and the Copper se Country’s massive supply of stamp at » sand have something in common. w The resident has called for the pi insulation of 90 per cent of all w American homes and Copper Coun- pj try residents have long searched for cc a commercial use for the huge deposits of mine wastes., The two have been tied together I . in a unique way by a researcher at ci [ Michigan Technological University, a L Dr. Fredrick D. Williams, associate ir t professor of chemistry at MTU, has _ . performed a laboratory test that . turns the stamp sand into strands . of fiberglass.[ Researchers at Michigan Techestimate.that 150 tons of the sand » exist in the Copper Country. If all 3 the sand was converted into insula-l tion, it would provide our need for the next 1,000. years.! Dr. Williams heated the sand to over 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit and ! dropped the molten material on a j spinning disk. The sand was spun into long fibers of glass, much like f sugar in a cotton candy machine. f “Our test lasted only about 20t seconds,” Dr. Williams said. “We „ knew the asbestos disk would not last long before shattering, but we wanted to prove that the stamp sand could form fibers. To use this ' process commercially, a spinning I device would have to be made from „ a platinum-rhodium alloy—which is far too expensive to use in a laboratory experiment.”According to Dr. Williams, the resulting fiber is strong—as glass. AI commercial - insulation operation would glue the strands together to make the long rolls of insulation.Assisting Dr. Williams on the project were six MTU freshnien on the | University’s freshman honors pro- ; £ gram. Students involved in the re-h search were Jeffrey Jack, Teri Clark, and Margie Ring, all of Marquette; William Jaeger and James te Kaiser, Mount Clemens; and Nor-II man Beck, Westland.
Newspaper Details
The Wakefield News
Wakefield, Michigan, US
Thu, May 05, 1977
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Library O.
MI, USA 12 Mar 2025
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