Inventor created Gore-Tex almost by accident

In October 1969, chemical engineer Robert Gore was performing low-tech experiments for a Delaware company founded by his parents. W.L. Gore & Associates made insulated wires and cables for electronic equipment. Some of company's cables had gone to the moon that year on Apollo 11.

One evening in the lab, Gore was working with a polymer called polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE, the same material used to make Teflon. He wanted to find a material to make plumber's tape at a lower cost. But every time he took a heated rod of PTFE from the oven and stretched it with his hands (protected by asbestos gloves), it snapped like a thin piece of Silly Putty. Frustrated, he took a rod out of the oven and gave it a jerk, and “it stretched the length of my arms. I was stunned.”

The PTFE had expanded 800 to 1,000 per cent. The sudden tug caused its molecular structure to uncoil, creating billions of air pockets that added strength and porosity. Gore filed for patents on his “expanded PTFE,” or ePTFE, which “allowed air and moisture vapour to permeate, but kept water out.”

Gore-Tex was used in electronics, medical devices, air filters and industrial sealants. Glide dental floss is made from Gore-Tex.

But its best-known use came when it was laminated with other materials to create the first breathable, waterproof fabric. By 1976 it was in camping tents, jackets, gloves and shoes.

Gore died Sept. 17 at home in Earleville, Md. at 83.

Fast Company called it in 2004 “pound for pound, the most innovative company in America.”

The company has a non-hierarchical corporate structure. Decision-making is shared. All facilities are called plants, and when a plant reaches 200 workers — the maximum Gore's father thought could work together amicably — a new plant is built.

Robert Walton Gore was born April 15, 1937, in Salt Lake City. He received his first patent in 1958 for a flat wiring strip, or multi-conductor ribbon cable, that was used in computers.

Survivors include his wife, Jane Arnold, and numerous children, stepchildren and grandchildren.

For many years, Gore was on the board of the University of Delaware, to which he donated millions. He also focused on the design of his company's buildings and labs to ensure they fostered the kind of serendipity that led to his discovery of Gore-Tex.

“I push us to try quick and dirty experiments,” he said in 2006.

Robert Gore