Technology Notes

> A cork substitute (called Fiberglas AE Board) was announced last week by the Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. (but not for bottles). Made of glass fibers pressed into lightweight blocks and sheathed in durable asphalt having a high melting point, it weighs 40% as much as cork and insulates just as well, looks nothing like it but resists insects, fungi, rodents. Significance: U.S. cork imports from Spain and Portugal have been cut off to a mere dribble, and there is a great wartime demand for cold-storage and refrigeration equipment, which will this year require some 200,000,000 board feet of cork or cork-like materials.

> Brittle plastics can be toughened by use of sisal fibers (a rope material from a Mexican plant) as filler, announces Modern Plastics. Sisal is better than wood flour (a common plastic filler) because its long fibers mat together, better than cloth and paper because it is easier to press into odd shapes.

> A covered wagon of basket-woven steel cables for hauling unexploded but still dangerous bombs from an air-raided city has been invented by members of the New York police department. If the joggling bomb explodes, the meshing cables are supposed to keep its metal fragments from scattering.

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