WEBVTT - Silly String: Disaster in a Can 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.160 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:16.119 and there's Chuck and Jerry's here and we're silly and 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:20.599 this is Stuff you should Know Silly podcast. Boy, did 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:24.000 this one just not reek of the Old House Stuff 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:29.240 Works days? Yeah? But what's awesome is that you knew 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:31.680 that you could just you know, like you didn't have 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:33.680 to double check any facts or anything like that, because 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:37.000 Tracy Wilson was on the case here and she does 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:39.760 not get her facts mixed up. No, this was an 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:42.159 Old House Stuff Works article from Tracy and also got 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:46.000 some stuff from CNN, Gismoto, a mental floss, the Wired, 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:50.360 and Mother Jones, which feels like a veritable greatest hits 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:54.520 of Stuff you should Know reference sites that look at it. 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.040 But we're talking about Silly String. We haven't done one 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:00.480 on a classic toy in a long time. It's been 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:04.840 too long. And although this isn't quite as interesting as 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:07.720 like say a Sea monkey, I think it still has 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:11.120 some pretty interesting points. Well, there's a d percent less 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.319 Nazis in this one, which I like, not one Nazi. 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:18.360 So um, Silly String is a toy and it's one 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.440 of those things that is so ubiquitous and everybody knows 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:23.480 about it and may may even be annoyed by it 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:28.440 or whatever. That, Um, you don't realize that there's people 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.400 out there who talk about this stuff and think about 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:34.400 this stuff, and that if you start to dive into 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:37.480 the Internet and look for those people, uh, and you 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.039 read what they write, you start to figure out that 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:43.280 they're all very, very wrong in whatever they're saying about 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:47.319 silly string. Yeah, and I think that was I think, 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:50.360 especially at the time Tracy wrote this article, it was 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.639 one of those deals where everything on the web basically said, 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:57.400 and we don't even know what's in silly string, And 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.200 it's one of those sort of like uh, easy chase. 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:03.440 It's like this sort of mystery what's inside the can 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.640 and science can't even figure it out and all we 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:11.120 know is invented by Julius Simon in nineteen sixty nine. 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:13.799 And it turns out that none of that stuff stuff 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.600 is actually true. We do know what's in silly string, 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:20.280 and Julius Simon did not invent it. No, And I 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.360 think here, um, about a minute and a half into 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:26.400 the podcast, we should probably tell everybody what silly string 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:29.360 is in case they have been in case they haven't heard, 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:36.160 living where living outside of a silly string laden country. 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.320 That's right. Silly string comes in an aerosol can. So 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:42.560 if you look at it, it's it might look like 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:49.200 easy cheese or a small can of AquaNet. First spray paint. There, 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:51.840 spray paint. I was trying to think of like antiquated things, 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:55.760 but sure spray paint works as well. Uh. And you 0:02:55.800 --> 0:03:01.680 press the nozzle and out comes shooting a pressurized stream 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:07.440 of this foamy string, and you can It depends on 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.079 you know, how hard you shake it and your angle 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.160 of incidents, I guess, or is that right. I've probably 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:16.800 got that wrong. The angle in which you shoot it. Sure, 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:20.520 angle of attack, angle of attack. But it can travel 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:22.760 you know, five six seven up to ten twelve feet, 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.600 and it's like kind of wet and cold cool feeling 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:29.880 when it comes out, comes out very fast and then 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.720 very quickly kind of um. It doesn't completely dry. It 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:36.400 still has sort of that tacky feeling because it will 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:39.840 stick to things. But the idea is that it stays 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.160 in a string form unless you kind of pull it apart. 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:47.320 That's what makes silly string fun and great. Yeah, it's 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:51.320 not like your grandfather shaving cream that was just foams 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:53.840 up in like into this pile, this bubble that kind 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:56.160 of grows. It holds its shape, and that's a really 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:57.840 important part of it because it wouldn't be a toy 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:00.080 if it just came out like shaving cream. No one 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:02.880 would want to play with it. It certainly would not 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:06.320 have had a very famous uh part of the movie, 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:09.760 the great Tom Hanks movie Big, So you've ever seen Big, 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:12.760 that's silly string in the scene where he and uh 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.080 Billy I guess are playing around. All of a sudden, 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:17.839 they have all this money and they buy all this garbage, 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.640 candy and stuff, and they buy silly string, and Tom 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:22.800 Hanks acts like he's squirting. It's like snot out of 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.160 his nose, and they spray silly string. And that's the 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:27.440 ideas that kids have a good time with it and 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:31.560 parents hate it. Yeah, parents and city council people, as 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.680 we'll see. And you said another part of it too 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:36.479 is not only just its shape, but the fact that 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:38.640 it can really travel. You said it can travel up 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:41.359 to ten to twelve feet, which for our friends and 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:45.000 non imperial countries is a handful of meters um, and 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:47.159 that's a lot. You know, like you can be standing 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:49.800 pretty far away from somebody, spray them, drop the can, 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:51.640 and turn and run, and you still have a pretty 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:55.240 good head start on them chasing you. That's right. So 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:57.960 the story of Silly String Chuck is actually pretty interesting one. 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:00.960 I love ones that like toy that started out as 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.560 something else, which seems like every toy we've ever talked about. 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:07.120 It started, it started life as it's like a different thing, 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:09.040 and then somebody was like, actually this is a pretty 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:11.919 good toy, and everyone said agreed, and it became a 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.760 classic toy, and then we podcasted on it sixty years later, 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:17.839 that's right, Uh, not quite sixty, but in this case 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.520 it was. If you look at the actual patent from 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:26.039 n seventy two for foamable resinous uh for a foamable 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:31.360 resinous composition, you will find Robert Peacox and Leonard A Fish. 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:35.159 Fish was an inventor. Cox was a chemist, and what 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:39.120 they were trying to originally invent was a medical device 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:44.200 kind of an emergency largely battlefield, but an emergency cast 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:48.159 that you could spray on like a spray on cast 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:50.479 if you break a bone, that would sort of and 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.240 if you think about silly string in a different application, 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:55.880 and if you think about it, what if it instead 0:05:56.000 --> 0:06:00.960 came out and coated your arm and solidified. That's the idea, 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:03.640 and from what I could tell, they were successful in 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:06.640 that um. But part of what they were trying to 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:11.760 do was find the right nozzle. They they have apparently 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:15.200 tested like five hundred nozzles, uh, and one of those 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:18.560 nozzles shot this stuff out, this concoction that they came 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:22.279 up with in a string uh really far and that 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.440 string held its shape. So they were like, let's put 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:28.320 a button on this particular nozzle. I'm sure Leonard A 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.440 Fish walked around with it in his little change pocket 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.440 of his levies for many years. And then when the 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:36.760 time was right, they said, we should get back to 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:38.880 that because we've got the we've got the spray on 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.520 cast down. Pat, I think that other thing would make 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:45.279 a really good toy, And Robert Peacock said, agreed Leonard Fish, 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:50.360 and Leonard Fish nodded silently. That's right. As the legend goes, 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:54.360 they did not know anything about toy marketing, obviously, so 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:57.120 they made an appointment with who at the time was 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:00.000 probably the biggest name in toys in the early seventies, 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:04.960 Wammo still a big name in toys, and uh, we 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:07.560 covered Frisbees and Yo Yo's, Like the Wammos has made 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:09.960 an appearance in a lot of these episodes. Yo Yo's 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.600 was one of our better episodes if I remember correctly. Yeah, 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:15.800 it was a good one. Um. So they went to Wammo, 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:18.720 as legend has it, they sprayed the stuff all over 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.680 the office and the person they were meeting with as well, 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.360 and they said, get out of here. This stuff is 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:29.440 like how dare you? Kind of reaction. And the next day, 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:33.480 though apparently, fish got a telegram saying from WAMO saying 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:35.360 we need twenty four cans of the stuff as a 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:43.240 marketing test stop to stop right there. Uh and the 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:45.720 the idea and this sounds very much like a legend, 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:48.240 but who knows, it may be true. The idea is 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:50.840 that the next day they cleaned it up. But there 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:53.760 was one hangy string on a lamp that one of 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.040 the owners of WAMO saw and picked up and said, 0:07:56.160 --> 0:08:00.480 what is this stuff? It's it's fantastic. It's like Paul 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:05.920 Newman from Hudsucker Proxy. Okay, I haven't seen that one. 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.720 I guess I don't know. I know I at least 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:12.400 started it. Okay. It had to do with the invention 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:15.160 of the hula hoop. Okay, yeah, I saw a lot 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:17.560 of that, but it was some some Coen Brothers movies 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:19.640 are just not for me. Yeah, yeah, I hear you. 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.200 I like them all, but I get Emily doesn't like 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:24.520 a lot of them because they they do mean things 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:28.120 to animals and almost every movie. I never noticed that. Yeah, 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:31.520 it's a Cohen Brothers thing. Okay, So they basically say, 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:35.080 get these guys in here. This stuff is brilliant, and 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.320 they did, and apparently within a couple of weeks they 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:41.120 had a contract with WAMO to license and sell silly string. 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:46.080 But that still doesn't explain Julian Simon, right, No, Julian Simon, 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.320 the guy who is legendarily the person who invented silly 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.680 string back in nineteen sixty nine, actually does have something 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:54.680 to do with silly string. But he came into the 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:57.959 picture thirty years after he was reputed too, because in 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:02.959 WAMO said we've spent our silly string, We're done with this. 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:06.880 Who wants it? And Julius Simon had a company called 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:10.199 Julius Simon Limited, which was the parent company of the 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:15.000 car Freshener Corporation. How great is that? And car Freshener 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:18.280 had a subsidiary, a toy division called Just for Kicks, 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:21.600 and Just for Kicks bought the rights to make silly 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:28.760 string in and if car Freshener Corporation just rings the slightest, 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.800 tiniest bell, you might have seen it in really little 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:35.719 script on your tree air freshener that is dangling from 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:39.480 your rear view mirror. So Julius Simon is the gentleman 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:44.560 who holds the patent to the fur tree air freshener. 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:49.559 It's amazing, another ubiquitous product I've never owned. Yeah, the 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:51.840 same here. I never got into those either. He had 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.800 he had two patents and one was for the tree 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.920 shaped air freshener. Another one was, uh the Undressed Nake 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:04.000 Lady silhouette air freshener. Those were two pads. Well, I 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:05.920 guess he saw it on a mud flap and was like, 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.040 I think that was the great at an air freshener. Yeah, 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:11.520 I've never seen that one, but I can. I would 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:14.559 guess it's kind of that mud flappy thing too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:17.360 I feel like mud flaps it's either Yosemite Sam saying 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:21.360 back off, or it's like silhouette of a naked lady. Yeah, 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:26.360 that's your mud flap selection. Um, all right, I think 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:30.360 that's good enough for the first segment, which we'll just 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:33.839 call history, and in our second segment after the break, 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:37.719 we will bore you to tears by talking about the 0:10:37.800 --> 0:11:07.559 chemical contents of silly stringth That is not true, everybody, So, Chuck, 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:09.240 I just want to say before we get started, I 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:11.680 want to explain myself when I was saying stop while 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.760 you were talking about the telegram, I wasn't telling you 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:18.120 to stop a telegram. Stop. Yeah, yeah, I have. Have 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:20.679 you ever heard the legend behind why people said stop 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.200 instead of just adding a period? No, but I think 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:27.920 this is definitely the episode to put that. Okay, So apparently, 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.800 if you were sending a telegram, letters were very cheap, 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:35.559 but punctuation was expensive, so you actually paid less to 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:40.480 spell out the four letters then paying for a period. 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:43.120 That's why people had stopped in the middle of their sentences. 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:47.559 But the big dumb dumb would say stop exclamation point right, 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:51.720 I really mean it period here. That's amazing. What a 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.240 great little factory to be able to throw out at 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:56.920 the next dinner party. It is a factory. It's a 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:01.439 tenth of a fact. Oh wait, I might have my 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:04.040 wires crossed. I know what you mean. There's probably a 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:06.840 couple of listeners who get it. All right, let's dive 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:11.640 into a can of silly string, because, uh, what it 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:16.360 inside a can of silly string is known generally to 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.640 the public now, although some of the stuff on the 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:24.320 original patent is has had been changed since then, so 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:26.120 I think there are some trade secrets. But let's just 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:30.480 say it's definitely a liquid inside the can and it 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:34.240 becomes the string outside the can because of the stuff 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:38.120 that's inside the can. It is very lightweight, and like 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.240 we said, it does have an adhesive quality. But it's 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:43.320 got to be just the right mix that you want 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:45.960 it to stick to a lampshade or stick to a wall, 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:49.080 or stick to a person's like ears and hair if 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:51.959 you're draping it over the room, over them, over the room. 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:55.240 But you don't want it to be so sticky that 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:56.960 you can't get it off of something. You want to 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.000 be able to you know, it's got to be cohesive. 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:00.480 You want to be able to pull it out and 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:04.200 have it kind of generally come in one big ball 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.320 as you're trying to clean up afterwards. Right, So that's 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:11.240 the tension between the adhesiveness of it and the cohesiveness 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:13.880 of it. And as long as it's more cohesive, meaning 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:16.240 it'll it'll hold its shape when you pull on it 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:19.800 um than it is adhesive, So it's it takes less 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:21.679 forced to pull it off somebody than it does to 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:25.200 take to pull it apart. That's why it's so easily 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:27.480 cleaned up because it is a little bit sticky, but 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:29.760 not fully sticky, and that that has to do with 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.800 the genius of some of the stuff that's in it. Yeah, 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:35.960 and imagine getting this right is I mean it sounds well, 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:38.640 it's about to say it sounds silly, um to to 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:42.240 put this much research and thought into a product like this, 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:45.000 But if you get it wrong, no one's gonna buy it. 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:47.560 If it sticks so bad everything that parents can't clean 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.600 it up, they're not gonna buy it for their kids. Uh. 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:52.480 It's it's kind of genius in a way that they 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.839 figured like the exact recipe to make it fun for kids, 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:57.559 but something that you could generally just sort of pull 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:00.000 off and ball up and throw in the trash. Yeah, 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.000 and Robert Pea Cox and Leonard A. Fish are the 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:04.640 people who did spend that time figuring that out. Because 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:07.440 you couldn't make an instant cast with the stuff that 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:10.400 comes out of a can of silly string. So they 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.000 had to go back and figure out how to make it, 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:15.000 you know, very colorful, how to make it so it 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:17.400 didn't stick too much, how it was cohesive, all that stuff, 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:19.640 and they did. They managed to come up with the 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:25.160 perfect mixture of basically three ingredients, although there's more than three. Um, 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:27.880 there's I don't know why everybody says three, but everyone 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.000 does say three. Three is the magic three. And then 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:34.200 some other stuff. So there's a resin, a surfactant, and 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:38.120 a propellant, and apparently there's also a solvent which is 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.440 very important. There's also talc, which is very important, as 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:43.800 we'll see. But each one of these things plays a 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:48.560 really uh important role in the creation of the silly string. 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:50.960 And you know, like you said, it has to be 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:53.000 just right or else the whole thing is going the 0:14:53.040 --> 0:15:01.560 whole enterprise is going to collapse. I've picture doctor Strange 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:05.920 Love wheeling into the room all of a sudden mind podcast. 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.720 Uh So you've got your resin that's gonna form that 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:15.360 plastic structure, that exoskeleton of the strand, and an original 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:19.680 form on that patent it was an acrylic resin using 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:26.680 poly isobutal methacry late. And the resin is like everything 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:29.960 else with the silly string, you gotta get it just right. Um, 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:32.280 that is the framework of those strands. If you have 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:35.400 too much resin, it's not gonna foam like you wanted 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:39.080 to foam, and it'd be more like shooting cock at somebody. 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:41.200 And I think we can all agree that's no fun. 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:44.560 There's no such thing as silly cock. Uh. If you 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:47.360 have too little of the stuff, then they're not gonna 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:50.720 hold together. And if silly string, I think we agree 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.360 that if it came out as tiny little foam bullets, 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:55.760 it wouldn't be as fun as if it comes out 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.760 as a big string. But the whole point is is 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:02.040 once this thing is propelled into the air, then it 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.680 forms that shell that if you don't mess with it like, 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:07.480 it'll stay there for a while. It's not like it 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:11.880 just disappears. Yeah, because of the resin, that plastic structure 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:14.480 that it lends to the whole thing. Um, Yeah, if 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:17.120 you leave it alone, it can it can survive for 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:19.880 weeks basically, I would guess indefinitely. I'm sure it's like 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:22.120 how many licks it takes to get to the center 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.000 of it pop. No one really knows because no one's 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:28.320 just left silly string indefinitely, you know, talk about a monster. 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:32.280 So the propellant is also really important too for a 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:37.000 couple of reasons. Um, whatever propellant they're using is at 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:40.880 room temperature and normal sea level pressure UM, which is 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:43.080 what it's like outside of the can. It would be 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.400 a gas, but the contents of an aerosolt can is 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.280 under so much pressure that it's actually in its liquid 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:53.119 state UM. And the propellant when it when it emerges 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:57.760 from that can, it essentially boils. It changes from liquid 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:00.120 to a gas. And as it does that, because is 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.160 everything else is mixed up with that propellant. As we'll see, 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:07.080 it takes all of those other components there, resid surfactant, 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.920 the solvent on a wild ride, and they all combined 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:14.200 with one another and turned foamy. So again, the structure 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:16.720 of the exoskeleton the thing that lends the whole thing, 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:20.200 it's initial support, that's the resin. Yeah, and The other 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.399 thing the propellant does is that it also helps that 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:29.120 resin form basically and uh helps sort of create that 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:33.439 that foamy exterior because once that propellant is shot out, 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:36.720 it evaporates very quickly. Uh if you if you shoot 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:39.359 it at a normal distance, if you've ever taken silly 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:42.720 string and like shot it into your like a closed 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:45.560 palm or a fist or something, it's gonna be different. 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:47.280 It's gonna be like a lot more wet because it 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:50.199 doesn't have that chance to spread out and quickly evaporate, 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:52.360 and it's gonna be a lot more brittle. That's why 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.560 you're supposed to shoot you know, the propellant across the room. 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.119 Is it sort of lends itself to doing what it 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:02.520 does best. By doing what it does best, you're right, 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:07.600 which is propelling things. So um, they used to originally 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.760 use die chlora flora methane also known as free on 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:14.239 twelve and free on twelve is so bad for the 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:19.240 ozone layer that there is a global law against manufacturing 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:22.159 free on. Like think about how many global laws there 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:26.760 are that might be the only one. Um, I guess so, 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:29.440 but yeah, this is this is like an actual yeah 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:34.760 murder but still, how about like a global regulation maybe okay, sure, 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:37.800 or something that has to do with industry you're manufacturing 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:43.280 rather than you know, killing people. So so they used 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.120 to use free on, but you can't use free on anymore. Um. 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:48.960 You actually can use it in some applications. There's this 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:52.440 a finite stock of free on left on earth, um, 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:54.800 and you're allowed to use those. You just can't manufacture anymore. 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:57.440 So eventually we'll run out of free on. Um. They 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.560 had to figure out something else to use, and they did. So. 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.760 You don't find free on twelve inside of silly string 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.040 anymore because it's really bad for the ozone layer. That's right. 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:10.600 Although as we learned in our research over the years, 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:16.640 there have been various UH rogue off brands UH that 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:18.639 have used free on that have popped up, like in 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:22.280 the two thousands, and I think even in the two 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:26.240 thousand tens, they would find some random silly string shipment 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:30.080 that came from you know, Taiwan or China that still 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:31.639 had that free on twelve in it, and you know, 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:34.800 confiscate that stuff quick and get rid of it, right. 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:38.920 So UM. One of the other things moving on from 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.120 the propellant, which again it's really really important stuff. But 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:44.800 all of these things are important. Each one plays its 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:48.320 own role, and and the surfactant plays a really interesting 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:51.639 role too, because it helps the resin foam, it helps 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:56.800 the resin expand. And the surfactant does this by um, 0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:00.760 by the fact that it's ampiphilic and amphiphil. Sorry, it's 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:04.359 hydrophobic and it's hydrophilic, so it repels water and it 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:07.280 attracts water. It doesn't know what it's doing, but it 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:09.639 does both of those things. And in that sense, it 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:13.879 actually manages to keep molecules cohesive, so it lends it 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:18.040 it's cohesive um property um. It also lends it a 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:20.960 little bit of stickiness, but I saw that it keeps 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:24.399 it from being too sticky. So this is like the 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:29.479 surfactan is just a wonder chemical because it's doing the 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:34.479 opposite at the same time. Yeah, and the surfactant is uh, 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:36.720 like Tracy says, you know, so many years ago in 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:39.080 this article that it's just sort of a fancy name 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:43.360 for a detergent. And the idea is if you think 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:48.200 about like, um, like if you have a sink full 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:52.120 of water and you just squirt some soap, like dish soap, 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:54.359 in there. It's just gonna sort of sit there, and 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:56.480 you might not even know there's any soap in there 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:01.679 until you turn on that uh that high pressure from 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:04.439 the sink and maybe even put your finger over it. 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:06.719 Then that stuff's gonna foam up all of a sudden. 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:09.680 And that's sort of what's going on with this can 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:13.960 of silly string, right, And originally on the patent they 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:19.080 listed the surfactan as sorbitan trioliate, which has a trade 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:25.720 name of get this tween five tween. Yeah, that's weird. 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:28.280 It sounds like a super weird. Yeah, that sounds like 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:33.600 a an Internet name for a predator. It does, for sure. 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:36.240 But it's also one of those things that's like so 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:39.280 innocuous that it almost makes you wonder if they went 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:41.199 to great links to come up with something. You just 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:46.840 look right past, you know, uh as far um as 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:48.520 far as how much of this stuff is in there? 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:51.240 Of what stuff is in there, um, the resin is 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:55.240 about ten to fiftent. Surfactin is actually less than five percent. 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.120 Most of what's in that can as that propellant. So 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:01.879 if you had a see through can of silly string, 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:06.720 it would be mostly that liquid propellant. Well, I guess 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:08.560 it's all liquid at the time until it comes out 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:12.680 like we said, um, but mostly propellant. But you did 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:17.960 mention talc in there. I think without the talc it 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:21.240 would it wouldn't have much body to it. Is that 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:25.080 the idea? Yeah, it would, it would. I can't even 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:27.640 imagine it will be like, yeah, just be like kind 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:31.919 of flucky plastic e exoskeleton without it the foam, I 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:35.240 guess is what what I saw. And I also saw 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:37.680 get this, so I've been doing a little bit of sleuthing. 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:42.639 Tween eighty five is actually used as an emulsifier for 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:46.600 mixing mineral oil with other stuff in other applications, So 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:50.160 I believe that tween eighty five serves a double duty 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:53.840 as a surfactant but also an emulsifier for the talc 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:57.639 as well. Oh okay, okay, did you just do that 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:01.760 on the fly? I mean when I was researching it. Okay, 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:04.280