[NewCandle] Rhodes and Brown

[Keith Nagel]

Rhodes certainly has priority at the USPTO, his
patent US3262872 issued about 10 years earlier
than Browns US4014777 and in fact Rhodes patents
are listed as prior art in US4014777. So we
know Brown was aware of Rhodes.

I have a video tape of Brown pitching the gas
to investors, it's quite a dog and pony show. 
You see Brown play the torch over his arm to
show that the flame won't burn him, and he singes
all the hair off! He has this thick accent and
smokes stogies while he works with the torch.

But perhaps the most alarming
footage was his demonstration of how to remediate
radioactive waste. No doubt you've heard the
story that people from the DOE came
to see this and walked out on him. When
you see the demo you understand why.
He's standing in a garage and mixes thermite
and the waste on a firebrick. Then he
lights the torch, takes a fat toke on
his stogie for courage, and applies it ( the torch,
not the stogie ) directly to the pile of thermite. 

There's a big flash when the metal catches
fire, with a plume of smoke and ( most
probably ) alot of the radioactive waste.
Yes, read that last line again. A little
mushroom cloud. In his garage. 

Then he measures what's left on the firebrick
and voila, all gone. 

Chuckle.

K.