Two decades ago, Maurice Ward invented a fireproof substance that outperformed all known materials. Why wouldn't he reveal its secret?
The egg is ready. Maurice Ward makes certain of that. He hands it over to the TV producers, and the cameras start rolling.
"This is no ordinary egg," says the show's presenter Peter McCann. Indeed, a blowtorch flame is barrelling onto its surface to no effect. The egg should have cracked apart within seconds under the blistering heat. Yet after a few minutes, McCann picks it up and holds it in his hand. "It only just feels warm," he says. He cracks it open and out dribbles a runny yolk. "It hasn't even begun to start cooking."
That was March 1990, and this remarkable demonstration on the British TV show Tomorrow's World was about to transform Ward's fortunes.
The egg itself was nothing special. Its extraordinary resistance to the blowtorch's heat came from a thin layer of white material that Ward had daubed on its shell. An amateur inventor from Hartlepool in the north of England, Ward had concocted the stuff with no scientific training and named it Starlite.
According to McCann, Starlite could easily be painted onto planes, electronics, wooden doors, plastic wiring - indeed any place where protection from heat and fire might be important. It looked like Ward would soon be a rich man. Sure enough, scientists, multinational companies and even NASA were soon rushing to get their hands on Starlite. There was talk of million-dollar deals. Then... nothing.
Had Ward fooled the TV producers? Was Starlite a hoax? All the evidence suggests not. Subsequent tests in British and US government labs confirmed that it was the real thing. It also won praise from high places, including Ronald Mason, chemist and former chief scientific adviser to the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD). "I started this path with Maurice very sceptical," he told a TV reporter in 1993. "I'm totally convinced of the reality of the claims."
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