It was the heat resistant super material that could have changed the world forever - allowing a tester to blowtorch an egg but leave it runny inside.

But when its inventor died last year he failed to sell it and may have taken the secret to his grave.

Scientists still say they are desperate to learn the secret of 'Starlite' - and the inventor's family may have it.

The material was invented by the eccentric English inventor and former hairdresser Maurice Ward who had no formal scientific training and claimed he put it together on his kitchen table with a food processor

It was unveiled to the world on the BBC TV show ‘Tomorrow’s World’ in 1991 during which he held a Starlite-coated egg up to a blowtorch.

Despite the extreme heat it was barely warm to the touch and was still runny inside.

Experts immediately realised its possibilities for things like aeroplanes, fire doors, spacecraft and dozens more possibilities.

Mr Ward, however, refused to play ball.  

Over the following few decades his paranoia, capriciousness and need for absolute secrecy ruined all attempts to get it onto the market, New Scientist reported.

The first to try and get him on side was the UK Ministry of Defence which after 18 months of asking was allowed to send materials expert Keith Lewis to meet Mr Ward and test some Starlite.
Mr Lewis fired a laser into a piece of the material that was powerful enough to drill a hole through a brick, but there was no damage.
It was unveiled to the world on the BBC TV show ¿Tomorrow¿s World¿ in 1991 during which he held a Starlite-coated egg up to a blowtorch
‘What seems peculiar about Starlite is that you can just paint it onto anything you want to protect.No material has ever come close to what Starlite does’.He then used a tungsten bulb that would have emitted temperatures of 1,000C - but Starlite was not damaged.

Mr Lewis was convinced that it was the real deal but Mr Ward refused to let him analyse the material or publish his findings in a peer reviewed journal.

Mr Ward’s lawyer Toby Greenbury then came on board and became exasperated as he failed to grasp how to negotiate with big corporate companies.

One day he demanded  £1million - but the next he wanted £10million.
Mr Greenbury did however persuade Mr Ward to let him take some Starlite to Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge in the UK where it was put through tests to examine its thermal conductivity.

It was there that Mr Lewis took a closer look through an electron microscope and was staggered by what he saw.

He was an array of ‘small voids’ between two and five micrometres wide on the surface of the Starlite which gave it insulation and lowered its thermal conductivity.

Mr Lewis said: ‘What Ward had done, and he didn't know it until I told him, was develop a composite material with an engineered smart protection mechanism’.

Then the problems started again - negotiations with the British defence authorities fell through, one senior company boss was ‘driven to dementia’ over fears it was all a hoax.

Boeing and NASA made serious approaches but all left empty handed due to Mr Ward’s refusal to tell them anything.

As recently as 2009 Mr Ward claimed he was in fresh talks to coat doors with Starlite to make them fire resistant and that interest was growing.
Then in 2011 he died.

New Scientist reported that all Mr Ward has admitted is that his material is made up of 21 ingredients but has refused to elaborate further.

His family do reportedly know how to make it but they have yet to divulge the secret.

According to Mark Miodownik of University College London, who is compiling the world's largest library of material samples, Starlight’s potential uses are huge.

He told New Scientist: ‘What seems peculiar about Starlite is that you can just paint it onto anything you want to protect.No material has ever come close to what Starlite does’.


Hmmm! Eccentric eh!

If the government had it, you know what they'd use it in.

I just watched this and I am convinced. http://youtu.be/RxqFyDugqs4

i cant imagine that no army has gotten their hands on the secret yet. its the type of thing you would send agents to break into their home and steal a sample. he said it was barely warm inside the egg- i wonder what would occur if the material finally breaks down.

on the second thought, what would happen if you painted a nuclear bomb with that stuff. would it not explode?

Everything within the shell would be heated and would therefore expand.  The explosion would happen normally.

agreed.

that stuff could be used to create the ultimate stealth costume.

This sounds like an urban myth.

That isn't to say that it is. Just that it sounds like one.