YEAR OF DISCOVERY UNCLEAR

One of the problems immediately evident with the "official" history of Nitinol is the exact year offered for its discovery. Simply "Google" the word Nitinol with any of the following years: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962 or 1963. Search results will show links to sites that give each of those years as the "year of discovery" for Nitinol. Even Nitinol's "official" co-inventors Buehler and Wang have offered different years of discovery when at the Naval Lab. Scientific journals and articles found in the popular press give different years. When reached by this author and asked what was the exact year he "co-invented" the material, Wang gave a strange laugh and admitted that he wasn't exactly sure and that he would have to look it up!

DIFFERENT REASONS OFFERED FOR WHY IT WAS DEVELOPED

We are given at least three completely different reasons on why Nitinol was being investigated in the first place. In an oral history, Buehler said that he was conducting studies on intermetallic alloys for use in re-entry aeronautic nose cones. But a 1968 Time Magazine article quotes him that they were trying to find a non-magnetic, non-corrosive material for use as a tool in mine dismantling. Recently, a former Lawrence Berkeley scientist has related that to this author that he examined Nitinol while at that National Lab. He was told that the material was developed when trying to create new submarine ship hull material.

DIFFERENT EXPLANATIONS GIVEN FOR THE CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING ITS DISCOVERY

In most re-tellings, the explanation for how Nitinol was "accidentally" discovered is something to the effect that "someone was bored and decided to take a match to it to see what heating would do." Nitinol requires energy -like heat- to morph.

But in another recounting, a researcher "RCW Wiley" had placed a Nickel-Titanium alloy into a hardness testing machine and a dent was made. Wiley then decided to warm up the block to see the effect of heat treatment- and to his surprise- the dent vanished. No mention is made if the Titanium was purified to the ultra-high levels required to make Nitinol.

Yet another reason is given in an oral history by Nitinol co-inventor Buehler. He says that for some reason he took a strip of the alloy into a managment meeting at the Naval Lab one day. He was "fidgeting" with the material and an associate named David Muzzey (of whom no record as ever been found) was compelled to take a pipe lighter (in some versions a cigarette match) to the material to see what would happen...and Voila, Nitinol!

Buehler is conflicted and offers two diametrically opposed explanations about the material. He at one time refers to it as a "planned discovery" and yet to another reporter he said that it came about as a result of "serendipity" or an accidental discovery. In an historical retelling late in life, Buehler exclaimed almost metaphysically that he was "drawn" to the alloy. When he struck it, Buehler says, "it rang out brilliantly" and he states that the "equiatomic Nickel Titanium was acoustically signalling that it was unusual or unique." Just how he knew that the Titanium must be of nearly 100% purity- or that the temperature, pressure and other dynamics must be precisely in place to create Nitinol and energy then introduced into the metal is a specific way- is never made clear.

BATTELLE PROVIDED THE U.S. NAVY WITH ROSWELL MEMORY METAL TECHNOLOGY

As described in a previous article, Battelle's Dr. Howard Cross -a metallurgist and secret Project Blue Book UFO researcher- was likely directing the Roswell debris analysis. Cross was "feeding" technical information on specially-processed Titanium (which is required to make Nitinol) as early as 1948. Cross is the author of a technical summary report entitled, "Titanium Base Alloys." It was presented by him to the Office of Naval Research in December of 1948. The Naval Lab is the very lab where Nitinol was "officially" discovered many years later.

In fact, a research paper from Nitinol's "official" co-inventor, Dr. Wang, gives us confirmation that he was "fed" needed information on the alloy from the early Battelle report on memory metal done after Roswell. In footnote No. 6 in his "On the NiTi (Nitinol) Martensitic Transition, Part 1 1972 Naval Ordnance Laboratory, White Oak, MD" Wang cites the Battelle 1949 "Second Progress Report" on Nickel-Titanium system authored by Battelle scientists Craighead, Fawn and Eastwood.

Click on the 'NEXT' arrow for page 3

Share this article with: