Jacob Roberts's article "A Successful Failure" (Summer 2015, p. 8) is an interesting but brief history of the early silicone rubber product Silly Putty. My first position after earning my degree in chemical engineering was at General Electric Silicone Products in Waterford, New York. As a process engineer in the polymers and rubber department, I worked on scale-up projects in the pilot plant, developing commercial processes for silicone compounds. Jim Wright's lab invented the. polymer -and compound that became the toy known as Silly Putty. Jim developed a silicone polymer that made use of by-product monomers from GE's fluid-bed process that reacted silicon powder with methyl chloride. The use of by-product monomers gave GE the low-cost advantage in the nascent silicone industry. Those monomers were polymerized into a mildly crosslinked polymer, compounded, as Roberts writes, with boric acid and other fillers. GE Silicones made two colors: the pink toy, Silly Putty, and a gray compound for a variety of commercial uses. The unique elastomeric properties of the gray compound found one use in the furniture industry in chair-leg levelers.
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机译：雅各布·罗伯茨（Jacob Roberts）的文章“成功的失败”（2015年夏季，第8页）是早期硅橡胶产品Silly Putty有趣而简短的历史。在获得化学工程学位后，我的第一个职位是位于纽约沃特福德的通用电气有机硅产品。作为聚合物和橡胶部门的工艺工程师，我在中试工厂从事大型项目，开发有机硅化合物的商业工艺。吉姆·赖特（Jim Wright）的实验室发明了这种药物。聚合物和化合物，后来被称为傻腻子。 Jim开发了一种有机硅聚合物，该聚合物利用了GE流化床工艺中的副产物单体，该副产物使硅粉与氯甲烷反应。副产物单体的使用为GE在新生的有机硅行业提供了低成本优势。那些单体聚合成温和交联的聚合物，如罗伯茨所写，与硼酸和其他填料混合。 GE Silicones生产两种颜色：粉红色玩具Silly Putty和灰色化合物，可用于多种商业用途。灰色化合物独特的弹性体特性在家具行业的椅腿矫平机中得到了一种应用。
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