What is Zectron (Wham-O 'Super Ball')?
Tracy Hall
"Superball: Made of amazing ZectronŽ and 50,000 pounds of compressed
energy all to give you the most incredible super-high bounce."
(Hmm. The pound is a unit of energy! Perhaps the polymer is molded at
50,000 psi? Wham-O should convert the number to Pascals -- much
bigger!)
Google.com and the IBM and USPTO sites lead nowhere, searching on "wham-
o", "zectron", or "super ball." Deja.com produces the same query from
Jack Kadlecik on 1/28/1996 with one response from Alan /Uncle Al/
Schwartz, who presumed it was a silica-loaded rubber.
Calling all polymer chemists: Is the secret out yet?
Tracy Hall
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Tracy Hall
> Calling all polymer chemists: Is the secret out yet?
Absent a quick response from in...@wham-0.com, I searched a bit harder
and learned a little about “Super Ball” formulation.
A brief history of the Wham-O Super Ball is found at
Wham-O ® Super Ball ® - - History (From the book "American Fads")
http://www.superballs.com/wham-o_superball_history.htm
Although the formula for "Zectron" was supposedly "double secret”, the
above source says that Norman Stingley obtained a patent for it that
was issued in March 1966. "The primary element was polybutadiene, with
smaller amounts of sulfur to reinforce the material and serve as a
vulcanizing agent. According to the patent, the ball was molded under
some one thousand pounds of pressure per square inch at a temperature
of about 320 degrees Fahrenheit." The patent, presumably US 3,241,834
is too old to have its abstract or full text available on the IBM or
USPTO web sites.
Additional information is found in a transcription of the article: “Can
You Invent A Million-Dollar Fad?” by Wesley S. Griswold, Popular
Science, January 1966, Pp78-81, 210:
http://www.superballs.com/can_you_invent.htm
Wham-O has recently revived the super-ball:
The Wham-O Super Ball, By Stephanie Cook
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/03/04/text/p23s3.html
The so-called “super ball” that is a popular high school chemistry
demonstration has a completely different formulation, based on
polymerization of an aqueous solution of sodium silicate by ethyl
alcohol. A recipe for “bouncing balls” is available at
http://www.rohmhaas.com/company/plabs.dir/pdfdocs/bouncing.pdf.
I was interested in the Super Ball because I want a low-loss (low
attenuation) polymer for acoustic propagation. Due to its high water
and alcohol content, the “bouncing balls” silicate gel might have very
favorable acoustic properties – perhaps better than the “genuine” super-
ball.
isw
wrote:
> According to Wham-O, http://www.wham-o.com/content/superball.html:
>
> "Superball: Made of amazing Zectron® and 50,000 pounds of compressed
> energy all to give you the most incredible super-high bounce."
Wow! Hadn't heard that name in years.
I'll bet it's a polyurethane compound -- the high coefficient of friction
should be a giveaway (that's why it behaves the way it does when you bounce
it under a table).
Isaac
stor...@my-deja.com
combination of FTIR and TGA wodul probably work. E-mail me if you need
more information. I do this tyep or analysis all the time at Stork
Technimet, an independent matierals testing and consulting firm.
In article <87aeq6$8c0$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>,
Tracy Hall <htha...@my-deja.com> wrote:
> According to Wham-O, http://www.wham-o.com/content/superball.html:
>
> "Superball: Made of amazing ZectronŽ and 50,000 pounds of compressed
> energy all to give you the most incredible super-high bounce."
>
> (Hmm. The pound is a unit of energy! Perhaps the polymer is molded at
> 50,000 psi? Wham-O should convert the number to Pascals -- much
> bigger!)
>
> Google.com and the IBM and USPTO sites lead nowhere, searching
on "wham-
> o", "zectron", or "super ball." Deja.com produces the same query
from
> Jack Kadlecik on 1/28/1996 with one response from Alan /Uncle Al/
> Schwartz, who presumed it was a silica-loaded rubber.
>
> Calling all polymer chemists: Is the secret out yet?
>
Gary Bradnick
I have worked for a custom rubber compounding company for 23 years. It was
formerly a division of Polysar Ltd. Prior to that it was a family owned
business called NYE RUBBER. I was told that they made "super balls" for
Whammo and I even have some old lab size single-cavity compression molds.
The story goes that they were polybutadiene based rubber and many colors
were made and then calendared together to get the swirled effect. I thought
the extra bounce came from high amounts of coagent, similar to golf ball
center compounds. It was probably silica reinforced and the choice of
plasticizer would be important.
Gary Bradnick
brad...@neo.rr.com
"Tracy Hall" <htha...@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:87aeq6$8c0$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
Clive A Maier
>
> > Calling all polymer chemists: Is the secret out yet?
>
I looked for the Stingley patent on http://gb.espacenet.com/ - the
European Network of Patent Databases. There is no text available there
either but there is a drawing which most unusually includes brief
information about composition, thus:
Specific gravity - 1-1.3
Polybutadiene - about 100 parts
Sulfur vulcanising agent - 0.5-15 parts
Hydrated silica or carbon black or lithium oxide - 5-15 parts
--
Regards,
Clive Maier
John Osborne
deja.com> writes
>According to Wham-O, http://www.wham-o.com/content/superball.html:
>
>"Superball: Made of amazing ZectronŽ and 50,000 pounds of compressed
>energy all to give you the most incredible super-high bounce."
>
>(Hmm. The pound is a unit of energy! Perhaps the polymer is molded at
>50,000 psi? Wham-O should convert the number to Pascals -- much
>bigger!)
>
>Google.com and the IBM and USPTO sites lead nowhere, searching on "wham-
>o", "zectron", or "super ball." Deja.com produces the same query from
>Jack Kadlecik on 1/28/1996 with one response from Alan /Uncle Al/
>Schwartz, who presumed it was a silica-loaded rubber.
>
>
>
AFAIR, the significant feature of the "superball" (known in UK as
"Powerball") was that it was based on high cis-polybutadiene. If, as we
did, you fired them from a gas/air cannon ("spud gun"), they tended to
"chunk" - a characteristic of high cis-polyBd. Probably filled with
fumed silica (certainly not carbon black) ... degree of cure as well as
choice of curing agent affected resilience. Can't recall optimum cure
level; sulfur cure gave good results.
--
John Osborne, from Castle Despair (home to Henry the hairy German
shepherd).
"Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than you are." - Hints for Military
Service in the Field #23
John Osborne
deja.com> writes
>According to Wham-O, http://www.wham-o.com/content/superball.html:
my alcohol-damaged brain: peroxide cure tended to give better resilience
than sulfur cure in polybutadienes and sundry other elastomers ...
--
John Osborne, from Castle Despair (home to Henry the hairy German
shepherd).
Service in the Field #17
