re:Blackening Materials

[John Roberts <roberts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 12:04:09 -0600
>From: elliotb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Elliot M Burke )
>Subject: re:Blackening Materials

>On the subject of flat black coatings:
>The very blackest thing around is acytelene black.  The soot from a 
>torch is allowed to form on what ever you need to get black.

An interesting phenomenon you may notice when starting up an oxy-acetylene
torch on a very cold day is that the pure-acetylene flame (before the oxygen
is turned on) gives off little wispy filaments of carbon that float gently
through the air until they land on your clothes, at which point you can abandon
any hope of ever washing them out.

Of further interest to 3D enthusiasts - it has been found that soot contains a
small percentage of fullerenes, including the famous soccer-ball-shaped C60
"buckminsterfullerene", which makes a great computer graphic stereo pair. :-)

John R


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