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Technology Stocks : Research Frontiers (REFR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Debt Free who wrote (737)	3/10/1998 11:12:00 AM
From: Michael Klausner	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50274

Thanks for directing your thoughts towards new applications for SPD technology. In the case of UV protection, this is not something that our particles do directly, but we protect against UV by using commercially available UV blockers or UV absorbers in our film. The main function of our particles is visible light control. However, most UV blocking windows have not sold very well because they offer an invisible solution to a real problem ( the same is true of typical heat reflecting low-E glass). We believe, based upon our discussions in the glass industry, that glass companies will sell more invisible solutions like UV blocking and IR reflecting windows if they also offer a visible solution in a "super window" which offers light control. Thus SPD technology will also help them cross-sell other advanced window Also thanks for the article on safety glass. I found it fascinating and also gave a copy to Bob Saxe you appreciated your thoughtfulness. I always enjoy stories about accidental scientific discoveries (and about perserverance). As a brief aside, the first poly-iodide crystals which Dr. Land used (but which were not stable to even room temperature and other things) for the first suspended particle light valve were discovered in the mid 1800s by a lab worker who, for some unexplained reason, fed the lab's dog quinine. Fortuitously, the dog then urinated in a tray of iodine (which also for some reason was left on the lab's floor). Rather than throw out the mess in the tray, the lab technicial noticed that small crystals had formed and studied them and discovered that they polarize light. Five generations of particles later, Research Frontiers has a version of these particles that work. We also don't use exotic materials as were originally needed. Imagine if we had to employ a dog in our labs (or perhaps several elephants as we did our commercial scale up!).