| Show a GLUE REVERSES GRAVITY c S lr i 7 1 4 1 0 1 s t T 4 rn f r t. t J i 11 This piano could hang here for 50 60 years said Chemist Bill Dill Thomson Thomsen as he pointed confidently to the heavy grand piano glued upside down to the ceiling over his head by a thin film of glue called Eastman PlO adhesive The scene was an advertising photography session in the floor Manhattan studio of Eastman Chemical Products Inc where much of its advertising and promotional photography is shot The company based in Kingsport Tennessee is a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak Company As the scene was being furnished and accessorized and the piano people were were shimming some lome of the keys to make the keyboard even there were some nervous nellies who did their best beet to avoid being directly under the piano Dut But after an hour or so they got used to the idea of the piano being on the ceiling began to have confidence Inthe Inthe in inthe the gravity defying power of the glue and photographer Dave Cherrington was ready i to 0 shoot Chemist Thomsen Thomson of Eastman's East mans man's adhesives laboratory in Kingsport had come to New NewYork NewYork NewYork York with wilh the sticky responsibility responsibility of applying the glue properly As every do your It your it-your- seller telfer knows a II glue wilt will only work well when the surfaces to be glued have been well prepared And Md oddly enough the thinner the adhesive layer laer if u the stronger the bond Preparation included reinforcing reinforcing rein rein- forcing the legs of the piano with steel bars welded to flat metal plates screwed into the bottoms of oC the legs A 3 16 in thick square of butyl rubber was then glued to these plates while another er set of metal plates these being welded to long threaded bolts was glued to the other side of the rubber The purpose of oC the rubber sandwich was to provide the intimate contact required between between between be be- tween surfaces for Cor the Eastman adhesive to function percent effectively A metal metal- metal to-metal bond would have been equally strong if the surfaces had been mac machined to mate very closely The tensile strength of the rubber had been tested pre so Thomsen Thomson knew that the rubber laminate would stretch under the heavy pull without tearing apart The threaded bolts were then bolted through a II studio theatrical flat serving as a simulated ceiling to steel bars Then the piano was hoisted upside down by two one ton one ton winch hoists fastened to the buildings building's beams Six hour later photography finished the piano was lowered to the floor The bolt assemblies assemblies assem assem- blies were removed after aCler a II struggle by two strong Eastman East man men using hard twisting yanks Dut But they were doing it the hard way They could have ju just t sliced iced through the synthetic rubber For all its lis effort Eastman ended up with a color photograph photograph photo photo- graph for tor an advertisement that proved the positive power of oC its Eastman adhesive and also allio proved iU Its own honesty in advertising |
