According to Professor
Thomas Engel, after the high-pressure
experiment with ethylene gas went awry, little else was left behind except a
white, wax-like precipitate in the remains of an autoclave. "It was the heat,
pressure and the oxygen acting as a catalyst on the gas that left behind a
material, which had properties that would soon change the world of
plastics."
Excerpted from "The History and Influence of PEX Pipe on Indoor
Environmental Quality" by Robert Bean ©2007
