GLASS THAT IS NOT GLASS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 31, 20 February 1937, Page 17

GLASS THAT IS NOT GLASS

Discoveiy of "Flexilume"

HollywQod, ifi its searcb for artistio stage effects in motiou pictures, has run across "flexilume," a floxible glass. Th© new chemical compoUnd lie® midway between celluloid and glass made With sahd. Product of secret formula, it is imported from Vienna laboratories iti sheejb form4 It is transparent itt its nativ© stat® and transculbnt When daubed wiih coiour. Prfictic&lly unbreakable, it was twifefed into intncate ahape® for an imprestiofiietio coconut grove soene. Tir©d of th© convefitional artificial tropibal ttees whieh continue to fool increasingly fewer theatregoers, Robert Ushqr, scene artiet at Paramount studio, discovered th© possibilities Of the syhthetic glass in th© Los AUgeles office of a decorativ© glass specialist, •Jharles Carroll. Immediateiy a large stock was imported, sheets heated to conform to a oloUld attd to allow cUtting, and a fchree-dimensional, artistic pfilm settifig §rew iu one of tho studio'e eound stages. Spot and flood lights of withering iutensity failed to ttielt tho material, nor did any^ cdmbustidn result from the *

heat whieh normally makes powdered faces molten masks if exposed too long. Thds resistance to fire is considered second in importanee only to the nbnbreakable feature. Less expefisiv© than the us© of glass, in whieh ©ktreme care must be shown, flexilume has already been drafted by another studio, intent ott bizarre effects at minimum cost. Decorator Carrol thinks. the mofciofi pioture Use is the first commereial use to whieh fiexilume has yet been put, and he reports inquiries from motorcar and airoplane factories, interested in the teinsile strength of 2800 to 3600 pounds Artist Usher found in his experiments. He also found that it took i47,000 pounds pressure to break a rod of the compound when h© was benoit under steam. Enthusiastic about its improvement® over the brittleness of glass and. the inflammability of oelluloid, the artist predicted a further adyantage : it© fiie in technicolour, where briiliant r^>roductions can be obtained by infusihg dyes in the synthesis as well as painting the l|ly after it has. been steam'ed into shap©. *