h a l f b a k e r yA few slices short of a loaf.
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*Teflon is a registered trademark of DuPont. I'm not going to try to reproduce that (R) symbol here.
Synopsis:
Teflon can be produced in any color, is heat resistant, fire resistant, flexible, wear-and-tear resistant, chemically very inert, waterproof, and doesn't get smudged by dirt. It
even resists "ultraviolet decomposition", which causes most other plastics to last a lot less than (as claimed by environmentalists talking about litter) forever. So, let us make book pages from this stuff! Let us especially make Very Important Reference Books this way, for the Ultimate Archive. (Ladies, if you want clothes made from Teflon, because they will last for however-long it takes for any fashion fad to cycle around and come back into style, remember they will probably all be "slips". :)
Details:
The physical properties of Teflon, as described above, are the result of its chemical composition. This is basically long chains of carbon atoms surrounded by fluorine atoms. The carbon-fluorine chemical bond is quite strong, stronger than the carbon-oxygen bond, which explains its fire resistance. That is, for Teflon to burn in oxygen, the oxygen has to cause a strong chemical bond to be replaced by a weaker one, and this is something that just doesn't happen easily in Nature. (Add fluorine to carbon dioxide, though, and it's not difficult for carbon-fluorine bonds to replace carbon-oxygen bonds.) Next, while Teflon features carbon-carbon bonds in those long chains, these are actually physically protected by the surrounding fluorine atoms. For oxygen to get at those bonds, the carbon-fluorine bonds have to be broken first!
Anyway, since the carbon-fluorine bond is so strong, there is very little tendency for the atoms in Teflon to interact with anything else. Thus does everything slip from it instead of stick to it. It also explains the wear-and-tear and heat resistance of the material. As for colors, it is my understanding that this depends on additives during manufacture, and that transparent Teflon is the "natural" color.
For those who wonder how Teflon sticks to frying pans, the answer is a heat-and-pressure process, with the pan first having its surface etched (like frosted glass), to maximize the surface area of contact between the two materials. Some small amount of chemical reaction may also be involved (heat certainly promotes such), and that would be the real clincher. But in this Idea, I am wanting to apply heat and pressure WITHOUT fusing the teflon to anything other than itself, as described next.
Let us imagine bins of colored Teflon dust, including white. A process reminiscent of ink-jet printing is used to lay down an entire page of evenly deep colored dust, including white, on an appropriate flat surface. For a mental image of the flat surface, I suggest a thin layer of synthetic sapphire over a warm griddle. Synthetic sapphire is fairly slippery and heat-resistant and inert stuff in its own right. Also, this process may need to be performed in a vacuum, to prevent moving mechanisms from pushing air about, which in turn would blow the slippery dust about. On top of that dusty page is unrolled a microthin layer of opaqueTeflon. Another page of dust is "printed" on top of that layer, which has the sole purpose of keeping the two sets of dust separate. A press-down plate (also sapphire coated) is now placed over the griddle. Lots of heat and pressure are applied, fusing all the dust and creating a single sheet, looking just as if "normally" printed in full color on both sides. To the best of my knowledge (and several Google searches), there are few if any inks that can permanently stick to Teflon, so I am suggesting this alternative.
OK, so it could be possible to make single book pages by that process. With appropriate conveyors and lots
of baseplate/griddles (and an appropriate sapphire heat/pressure roller), some degree of mass production should also be possible. We therefore could produce all the pages of a book, which then need to be bound. Traditionally, quality books have their pages sewn together (which would work with Teflon pages) into groupings called "signatures", which in turn are (these days, anyway) glued into the binding -- which probably would not work so well with Teflon. However, for really long lasting books, the binding should also be made from Teflon (significantly thicker material), and so perhaps we should simply use more heat and pressure to melt all parts of the binding-edge together. Microwaves of an appropriate frequency may make this part easier.
One of the things about the Information Age, that is starting to worry a lot of people, is the fact that we have gathered enormous amounts of data on specialized media, and in specialized data formats, that have become obsolete over the decades. The ease with which digital information can be copied seems to have come with the price of a lessened ability to retain data for the long term. Well, if the gathered data was considered worthy of being saved in the first place, then it follows that losing the ability to scan that data is something to be seriously avoided!
Meanwhile, plain old fashioned books are starting to be replaced by digital gagetry, including the Internet. It seems reasonable to think that everything that yet survives on paper is going to eventually be fed into the Internet. Technology will improve to the point where portable electronic document gadgetry will be more convenient to carry and use than books, and so an entire industry, which had been vitally important to the development of civilization, will go the way of the buggy whip.
The problem, for which I am suggesting this Idea, is simply that extremely few technologies are perfect. Gadgets fail. Power systems fail. And civilizations have fallen so many times over the millenia that it would be foolish to think that such will never, ever, happen to us. So I suggest we consider the Boy Scout motto, and "Be Prepared!"
What WILL we do if all the old fashioned books had been declared obsolete and trashed, to make room for data disks and chips and crystals and who-knows-what...and then civilization falls? Without electricity, how is anyone going to ACCESS all that data? Consider the legends of Atlantis, and wonder about whether or not it also had had a digital civilization...and why there seem to be no recognizable records today. Supposedly Atlantis sank 12,000 years ago, and after it went under, it took us that long to once again discover and develop everything needed to achieve a digital civilization, complete with impermanent records!
If Atlantis really existed, and if our own civilization falls, then can we PLEASE not waste 12,000 years reinventing everything again?
So, enter the Teflon Archive, consisting of dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, general how-to manuals, specialized references -- especially including papermaking and book printing! -- and so on. In several languages. In multiple copies, in multiple locations, some public, some hidden in time capsules. Then let everyone know that they exist and are mostly useless now, but are findable if needed. So that if the almost-worst-thing comes to pass, we will not leave our surviving descendents in such ignorance that prejudicial superstitions become as common as in ancient history, and interfere for millenia with rebuilding.
Regarding bacteria that eat plastics....
http://www.anybook4...ail/0670496626.html
Teflon will be inedible. Bacteria cannot break the carbon-fluorine bonds any more easily than oxygen in a fire. [Vernon, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004]
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So [V], I always hear about how plastic items that wash up on Antarctic shores will sit there for 1000 years, and that a plastic bottle in a landfill will last 10,000 years. I want to know: how much more durable than plain old polyethylene is Teflon? Because polyethylene books would be cheap. Plus, you could use a Sharpie to draw mustaches on all the faces - not possible with your scheme. |
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bungston, most plastics if buried in landfills will indeed last a long long time. But when exposed to sunlight for enough months, the ultraviolet light that would give you a sunburn will fracture the plastic molecules, and gradually break a plastic object down. It will take a while to become dust, but not centuries. Also, it is possible that at some point during the breakdown process, certain bacteria may be able to assist. (Did you know that the reason asphalt roads need to be repaved, usually every 7 years, is that the tar gradually gets broken down by bacteria? It's not a huge leap from digesting tar to digesting plastics!) |
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Anyway, for Teflon, the carbon-fluorine chemical bonds are tough enough to require higher-energy ultraviolet photons, to be broken. In a glowing object like the Sun, most of its energy output is in the infrared, some is in the visible-light region, a fraction is in the ultraviolet, and so on. Higher-energy ultraviolet photons are comparatively rarer than ordinary sunburn-causing ultraviolet. Thus it takes longer for sunlight to break Teflon down than for most other plastics. So, part of the reason I specifically mentioned thick Teflon book covers was to offer that much more protection for the pages.... |
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Polyethylene may be easier to write on than Teflon, but much of what is written can be rubbed off too easily. Yes, there are plastics and special inks that work well together (look at just about any candy bar wrapper these days), but I wouldn't want to trust their durability if something better was available. Not to mention that polyethylene is combustible, like paper. There are times to cut costs, and there are times to do the best possible job, period. Note that I described the collapse of civilization as the "almost-worst-thing", because the worst thing would be the end of the human species, such as could be caused by a giant meteor impact -- and that is something not preventable by anything less than the equivalent of our modern electric-powered digital civilization. |
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Rods Tiger, a "Sharpie" is a brand name for a fine-point indelible-ink porous-tip pen. It probably won't scratch either polyethylene or Teflon. But you are correct in that Teflon is susceptible to pokes and scratches and cuts with hard sharp objects. So is paper, of course. Since books made of paper have in the past generally been protected from such treatment, it is reasonable to think that as long as books are considered worth having for their handiness and easy data accessibility, then any made from Teflon would be given the same respect. |
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Sounds expensive. Would it not be cheaper to collect these reference books, then wrap each in a sheet of teflon? |
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lintkeeper2, wrapping up ordinary books may be somewhat OK, but there are limits. Heat that might not melt the Teflon can cause "destructive distillation" of the cellulose in paper (the same process that turns coal into the "coke" used for steel-making, and yields "coal tar" as a byproduct). And unless the Teflon makes an hermetic seal, oxygen will get at the paper and slowly "burn" it (paper that has turned brown/brittle with age actually is "burning", very very slowly). Remember that Teflon can be punctured. Water can get at unsealed paper, too, of course. So, again I'd prefer that an Archive intended to aid the rebuilding of civilization be as inherently durable as possible. A punctured Teflon book-page will still be mostly readable, centuries after a paper book has moldered. |
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Thanks, skipper. Many restaurants make do with laminated menus. Perhaps this needs to be suggested to yours? |
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Captain James Tiberius Kirk is the correct full name, for those who don't know and aren't funning. |
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Very nice. I think every society needs a good backup every now and then. I think you'll find that a continuous roll process would be faster, cheaper, more durable, and easier to store. Less easy to use, but this is an archive not a daily-use application. |
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call me lazy but i get tired just looking at so much to read here. teflon books is a great idea though. well i did read the synopsis. |
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Would this be any cheaper than etched metal pages? Metal might well be more valuable (and therefore better protected and looked after) than teflon in a post colapse of civilisation era. |
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Perhaps the book of mormon was done this way... |
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aquamarine, believe me this is dear Vernon being brief.. |
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RobertKidney, yes, many metals have superior resistance to heat, scratching, and puncturing. But metals corrode, and are lots heavier than paper or plastic. Worse, one of the best ones for corrosion resistance, titanium, is flammable (hard to START burning, but once it starts, titanium burns in water, carbon dioxide, sand, and even pure nitrogen!) Also, consider the hypothetical case of the Incas having a written language, embossed onto gold sheets. Let's even assume there were diagrams of some sort of moderately advanced technology, say a steam engine. Then the ignorant Spanish come along, puzzle over the diagrams (interpreting isometric drawings is actually a learned skill), declare the Inca writings to be worthless, and melt the gold into ingots for easy transport and increased security against theft. Hypothetical, sure, but such recycling DOES happen to valuable metals! |
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Meanwhile, teflon sheets can't be burned to produce heat, are too slippery to be used as toilet paper, ...; in general, can't be RE-used for much in a low-technology world. Metals are ORDINARY, and most people know how useful they are, to be modified into something different than their original shapes. I would venture that if civilization collapsed and one day somebody dug up a Teflon archive, the sheer strangeness of Teflon as a material would pique curiosity as to what all those markings were about. And since I specified lots of reference materials that would necessarily involve pictures and diagrams (in highly informative color, hard to do with metals), you can be sure that it won't take long for the Archive to be declared too valuable to damage.... |
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