Patricia Billing’s Geobond

There’s nothing more relaxing and enjoyable than having breakfast in bed and watching endless episodes of the TV program “House Hunters”. Whether you are new to the market, a seasoned investor or downsizing and seeking a dream retirement home in a picturesque location with a view of waves crashing against the shore, House Hunters should have a storyline to suit your needs.

They say it best at their website, House Hunters takes viewers behind the scenes as individuals, couples and families learn what to look for and decide whether or not a home is meant for them. Focusing on the emotional experience of finding and purchasing a new home, each episode shows the process as buyers search for a home.

As you admire the spacious living room with a fireplace, the master bedroom with walk in closets and a majestic private bath complete with a tiled Roman spa, have you ever wondered what substance is essential in keeping so many structural components of the house securely in place?

It’s a product called Geobond.

Sometimes it’s been called Grandma’s Goo.

Geobond’s inventor is Patricia Billings of Kansas City, Missouri. Women-inventors.com and Engineeringcrossing.com helps us with some of Ms. Billing’s biography.

Ms. Billings spent most of her life as an aspiring artist and sculptor. She spent her undergraduate career at Amarillo College, a community college in Amarillo, Texas, where she studied art. Much of her time during the three decades she was a practicing artist was dedicated to sculpting figures from plaster of Paris.

Unfortunately, her career as an artist was cut short one day when one of her sculpted pieces, a swan figure which she had spent months working on, suddenly cracked and shattered into pieces. Her months of painstaking design and work had been undone in an instant, leaving her frustrated and in search of a permanent resolution.

In terms of her life philosophy Invent.answers.com expresses Ms. Billings obtained a patent for her product in 1997. She has refused to give away the secret to its creation. She has even turned down offers from companies to buy her out. However, contractors are continuing to develop uses for this material. It is already being used in 20 different markets and is often included in building materials as well as aircraft and bridges.

While Geobond can also be used in art, Ms. Billings also decided to create a product that was focused on that area. To this end, she created CraftCote. With these two products available today, her goal is to go back to her first love, sculpting. She has been recognized with awards and had articles written about her because of her revolutionary invention.

Today, in her early 80s and a great-grandmother, Billings maintains sway over the direction of her Kansas City-based company, refusing to give in to market pressures and committed to building on the quality of her great invention. Indeed, her preferred method of operation is to stay small, honest, and humble.

The website Mit.edu/invent/iow/billings explains Ms. Billings succeeded in inventing a milky additive that acts as a catalyst: when added to a mixture of gypsum and concrete, it creates an indestructible plaster. A scientist friend of Billings’ realized that her new material was also incredibly resistant to heat. So Billings returned to her lab, and in eight more years she had created Geobond.

The remarkable product is so resistant to heat that after being torched with a 2,000çF flame for four hours, it remains lukewarm. Not even a 6,500çF rocket engine can make it burn. Because Geobond is non-toxic as well as indestructible and fireproof, it is also the world’s first workable replacement for asbestos.

Cancer.org shares Asbestos is a group of minerals that occur naturally as bundles of fibers. These fibers are found naturally in soil and rocks in many parts of the world. They are made mainly of silicon and oxygen, but also contain other elements.

During the first half of the 1900s, growing evidence showed that breathing in asbestos caused scarring of the lungs. In the early 1900s, exposure to asbestos dust in the workplace was not controlled. Beginning in England in the 1930s, steps were taken to protect workers in the asbestos industry by installing ventilation and exhaust systems. However, in the huge shipbuilding effort during World War II, large numbers of workers were exposed to high levels of asbestos.

As asbestos-related cancers became better recognized in the second half of the 20th century, measures were taken to reduce exposure, including establishing exposure standards and laws that banned the use of asbestos in construction materials. There has been a dramatic decrease in importing and using asbestos since the mid-1970s, and alternative insulating materials have been developed. As a result, asbestos exposure has dropped dramatically in the United States.

By contrast, the benefits of Geobond expand. Engineeringcrossing.com explains GeoBond has attracted the attention of a multitude of industries and organizations whose livelihood depends upon the construction of nearly indestructible designs. The U.S. Air Force has itself spent a great deal of resources testing Geobond, arriving at the conclusion that it is in fact virtually indestructible.

In addition to being virtually indestructible, Geobond is also extremely malleable, can be shaped in any number of ways, and can be made to look like cork, slate, or marble. It has been successfully translated into stucco, roof tiles, and insulation and has quickly become a favorite with engineers and construction crews as the compound of choice to repair concrete and patch highways.

A summary of benefits are explained by Geocel.co.uk:
Excellent primer less adhesion to a wide range of substrates
No shrinkage
High UV and aggressive atmosphere resistance
Environmentally friendly
Non-hazardous
Good abrasion resistance
Manufactured under ISO 9001

At Female Competition International we continue to see an important principle that has been successfully applied over and over. When you take risks and are persistent in developing something you love, as we feel about women’s competitive wrestling in a dignified environment, it’s as though you bring your unique gift to the world that may never come about if it wasn’t for your dedication and fortitude.

We would like to thank the creative inventor Patricia Billings for creating Geobond; and the next time you are admiring your dream home and how in important places it’s well sealed together, you might want to privately thank her too.

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Sources: web.mit.edu/invent/iow/billings.html, inventors.about.com, women-inventors.com, engineeringcrossing.com, invent.answers.com/famous-inventors, epics.ecn.purdue.edu, weitzlux.com/asbestos/geobond, Wikipedia, www.cancer.org, geocel.co.uk/product, Photos thanks to Wikimedia Commons and web.mit.edu/invent/iow/billings.html.