transparent wood now.

Revell-Fan

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I hope this is not a joke. (Well, April's fools day is over, so there is hope. ;) )

One step before transparent aluminium. :)
 

Rhaven Blaack

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INTERESTING!!!
It looks promising, but it also needs more research and development. I am interested in how this infant technology turns out.
 

zathros

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This has to be the most stupid thing I have ever heard of. A piece of Lexan is stronger than annealed glass by 250 times, and that's a sheet that's much thinner. All Aircraft have Lexan Windscreens. They make rub on coatings that, if maintained, will delay the fading from U.V. Light. Lexan will not Yellow or Haze for approx. 10 years. Lexan is used by off road vehicles because if a rock hits your Jeep, it won't kill you or your assengers. I would not use it on a street legal car as it will scratch from the wipers and the sandblsting of driving. You couldn't use this stuff either, as it is not optically clear, and who wants a 4" thick windscreen that you can't see through?

God only knows what kind of chemicals they put in this wood to make it harden. A piece of composite material like that, and that's what it is, must go through years of testing. The smell will be noxious in the Summer, as any epoxy product is, when heated up, and (Hint) Heat is how you remove the best Epoxies. The ones that don't, you just shatter with a flat Punch and ror chisel.

I wonder how I could get a job like this, making useless stuff, a product no one asked for? I have laminated Lexan for some Windows ion the front of my Barn with Car Window ting, which keeps out all the U.V. light, I made them double paned, so they insulate quite well.

Not knocking the find, jusst the useless nature of this. Transparent Aluminum it will never be. Space ships, if future high speed ones are considered, would never have windows. Camera arrays will transmit the image, with the capabillity to zoon in quadrants, or the whole view, and would reduce the chance of being killed the the deathly radiation which is the biggest hindrance to Space flight away from the Van Alen Belts, the Magnetic sheilds which protect this planet.

Good read though. I wish I could get a job wasting someone' s money. It's common knowledge that removing Lignin from wood would make it transparent, it's the only thing that holds it together, which is why it was found to be a dead end. It's not a Green Product, Lexan, when burned at high temperature breaks down into It's what you have to do to make it strong

Lexan, food grade, and Medical grade, is invaluable in our society. Newer formulas of Lexan are virtually as safe as burning any other product, including wood, which would cause respiratory, and eye irritation. The vapors from Lexan are not known to cause any carcinogenic affect, even California states that. Walking into a smoke filled room of virtually anything will kill you.

I bet the epoxy gels used in that wood could not meet the same.

More applicable to our Hobby is the available transparency printable papers in opaque and clear (these have been around for years, transparent paper, so why is a 2 inch of wood such a good thing? Two examples are below. Excellent for model windshields, or half models, and cut-a-ways, to keep the dust out. Just my 2 cents worth.

Origami Transparent cellophane paper.jpg Transparency film.jpg
 

spaceagent-9

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I think you just answered all the people who ask how to seal a paper model, with that Apollo sheeting. thanks, I will look for that at staples in a few days!
 

zathros

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I think the diffusion of light from the refraction of the invisible stratification would be chaotic, and hard to work with. :)
 

zathros

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Well, remember all the striations that formed the matrix are still there. Much like in the 1960's, Archeologists though the ancient harbors in Italy were petrified wood, till they realized years later, that the wood imprinted on the side was from the wooden forms used by the Romans, who had invented Hydraulic cement, something that took well over a 1000 years to re-invent. Knowledge lost during the Dark ages, like the one we are entering now. :)
 

spaceagent-9

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I think I would be fascinated for the rest of my days touring archeological sites and learning stuff like that.
 

zathros

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I remember back in the '70's when the Archaeologists finally figured that out (about the Hydraulic concrete). We know more about the Romans history than the average Roman did. Imagine living in a civilization that was approx. from 30 b.c.e. until around 476 in the West, and until 1453 in Byzantium, not long before the "New World" was found, imagine if they had found the New World first, they would have decimated the local indigenous population as they tolerated nothing. People living in the middle periods must have imagined that Rome was eternal.
 

Rhaven Blaack

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I remember back in the '70's when the Archaeologists finally figured that out (about the Hydraulic concrete). We know more about the Romans history than the average Roman did. Imagine living in a civilization that was approx. from 30 b.c.e. until around 476 in the West, and until 1453 in Byzantium, not long before the "New World" was found, imagine if they had found the New World first, they would have decimated the local indigenous population as they tolerated nothing. People living in the middle periods must have imagined that Rome was eternal.
That would make for a GREAT back story for a SCI-FI that is based on the Roman Empire.
 

zathros

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I have never figured out why no one has ever done anything Sci-Fi connected with the Romans, in an intelligent manner. I would pity an Alien that landed in Roman times, even with modern weaponss, they eagerly fought tot the death. I would like to see Predator done at Peak Roman History, he (the Alien) would not have had it as easy, fighting by himself, that is. :)
 

spaceagent-9

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I think the Flash tv show is a serious parody of the tales of mercury vs the sorcerers. I wish I had knowledge of the source legends, but 40 years ago what might have been presented as legends, might have just been imaginative serial pulp novels. might have even been from the 20s or 30s, just books in my grandma's shelves I was condemned to. a school teacher that had a few treasures I have always remembered. Indian legends and that sort of stuff.
 

Rhaven Blaack

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I would also like to see more movies based on the books by Robert A. Heinlein (besides "Starship Troopers").
 

Revell-Fan

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A Predator in ancient Rome - IIRC this idea popped up some time on another forum. There is a fan film on youtube dealing with a Predator in the Middle Ages ("Predator Dark Ages"). It is pretty well made and entertaining.

Back in 1998 I wrote an entire (virtual) season of the TOS BSG (22 episodes, two more are still in my mind ;) ), some rather experimental, others following a huge story arch involving the Eastern Alliance and Count Iblis. Reason for my endeavour was the idea to confront the Cylons with Roman Centurios. I always wanted to do that because of the similarities between the Cylon and the Roman armour (including the mohawk). So everything else was written around that idea to make this encounter possible. The story is called "Experiment In History" and takes place on - Earth. But it is not the Earth the Galactic fleet has been looking for but an Earth in a parallel universe. Summary: The Galactica fleet has encountered an artificial worm hole which helped them to shorten their journey through space tremendously. In a blink of an eye they approached Earth. The first relief was smacked down because not all of their cosmic "brethren" like them to be in their vicinity because they think the fleet has brought a war to their front door. BTW, I gave the Colonials a switched anatomy (situs inversus), meaning that their hearts are on the right instead of the left. ;) While the fleet is orbiting Earth Apollo and Starbuck encounter another battlestar which is about to crash on Saturn. It is pretty well beat up, no signs of life, one bay ripped completely apart, the other one so scorched that the name is unreadable. Later they find out that the name beneath the dirt does not read "Pegasus" but "Galactica" and that the ship was destroyed 200 yahrens ago. Commander Adama and Dr Wilker send an away team through time to find out what happened. However, shortly after launch the Cylons attack. The assault is led by a Gold Centurion. He aims at the shuttle which is equipped with the temporal sythesizer. Just when the shuttle is hit the synthesizer malfunctions and flings the shuttle, an escort Viper and the Raider through time. All crash near Rome in 4 B.C. The Cylons were found by a Roman Centurion patrol whose leader looks like Baltar. He is so impressed by their fighting skills that he takes them to his home. He hides them in his basement and prepares for a major strike: The assassination of Emperor Augustus. Meanwhile the Colonials are facing different problems. Their ships are discovered by some farmers, an away team finds the abandoned Cylon Raider but is unable to destroy it, the Russian technician falls in love with a Vestalian virgin and Starbuck is thrown into the arena (of course ;) - and of course Apollo has to save the day - again :D ). The whole story was supposed to be light-hearted and fast-paced similar to "Star Trek IV" and "Back To The Future II" (in the end you even see three versions of our heros in space because of multiple time leaps). It is very funny but when the Cylons enter the scene they are much more brutal than they appeared on screen (there is quite some gore in it which might be unusual for "Galactica", but hey - they are relentless killing machines, especially in hand-to-hand combat! :) ).
 
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zathros

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Very Interesting. If you could divide it into storyboard sections, you could probably find someone to illustrate it. That would be quite a work there!! :)
 
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