Stastny´s invention

shoe polish can, styrofoam 10 x 10 x 26 cm

In 1949 Fritz Stastny was researching with polyemers to develop an insulation material for telephone cables at BASF. Right after the war they didn´t have proper equipment yet so in order to experiment under airproof conditions he was using cans of shoe polish, one of which he forgot in a heating device over the weekend. When he came back to work on Monday he found the lid 26cm above the can on top of a mountain of what is today known as styrofoam.