IPFS News Link • Science, Medicine and Technology
Carbon Fiber: Secret Ingredient of the 21st Century
• Wired.comCarbon Fiber Started With Edison
Thomas Edison stumbled upon a carbon-fiber precursor while experimenting with lightbulb filaments in 1879. He superheated splinters of bamboo and produced strands of carbon that could withstand high temperatures and conduct electricity. Physicist Roger Bacon expanded on this process in 1958, creating “whiskers” roughly 10 times the tensile strength and more than three times the stiffness of steel.