Max L. Lake, one of the most brilliant individuals I have ever known, passed recently. Max worked for me when I was a Project Manager at Wright Laboratories, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. At the time, President Reagan's "Star Wars" initiative was in full swing. I wanted a high temperature conductor of electricity because I calculated that massive platforms planned for space would have to reject heat at red-hot temperatures at least. Max realized that a semi-metal like graphite might be a really good conductor at very high temperatures.
Max, John Woolam (U of Nebraska), Gary Tibbetts (General Motors Research) and Bob Alig (Delco) put their heads together and concocted a high-atomic-order carbon strand which was dubbed Pyrograf-I. The also had a fiber that was produced in a puff of smoke, using the right catalyst. This was called Pyrograf-III, and you could argue that it was the first true nanocarbon in history.
In 1990 I decided to join Applied Sciences Inc. Together, Max, Jyh-Ming Ting, Jerry Hardin, Jim Farmer, Bill Tarasen, David Burton, Ron Jacobsen and I created many variations of carbon fibers which naturally grew from decomposing methane. But the ultimate vision was always Max's. He was the one who wanted to build a production plant.
Now, in 1991, Iijima of NEC Corporation in Japan published an article describing the structure of carbon nanotubes. Max realized immediately, gee, our fibers are hollow as seen by electron microscopes. Maybe our stuff is related to the nanotube?
Most of the physicists thought we were kooks. Max was looking for customers interested in buying tons of material at a time when others were bragging about being able to produce a few grams per day of similar material. But Nobel Prize winner Richard Smalley offered his opinion that our materials were indeed part of the nanocarbon family. Suddenly, Max was not so crazy. Professor Smalley had great plans to work with us, but unfortunately, he passed due to leukemia and his initiatives were not realized. I believe, however, that if we had been permitted to work together a bit longer, we would have made substantial achievements together.
We found new allies, from Japan, at GSI Creos. We formed a Joint Venture, and when we announced it in Tokyo, their stock went up in value by many millions of dollars. That actually made Max a little mad. Perhaps we didn't see our own value properly?
On the other hand, the past several years saw interest in nanofbers diminish. A new nanomaterial--monolayer graphene--was isolated in 2004 and launched interest in a new way to create reinforcement of polymers (and by the way, we probably made graphene in 2002, and there is rather firm evidence that this is so. But, we truly did not understand the significance of graphene until Novoselov and Keim published the paper which made them Nobel Prize winners; so, no, we have no claim on their Nobel. But this is a story for another time).
By the 2020's graphene and other nanomaterials became more popular and it became very tough to compete. Other companies, especially from the Pacific Rim, were producing lower cost materials. Perhaps it was inevitable that our team had to disband and we are all working on other things.
One time, one of our young employees asked me "Was Max always in a wheelchair?" I laughed, heck no! Yes Max had polio as a kid which left him paralyzed. But he was like Hercules! He could get around on crutches just fine, and that developed his arms and chest like Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was unbelievably strong.
Max could do most anything. Being from Oklahoma, he rode horses, and enjoyed the outdoors. Max was married to an absolutely gorgeous woman from Germany, Inge, and together they raised four children: Stephanie, Caroline, Max Jr. and Patrick.
However, I'll relate a story about Max. For years Max had his office on the second floor of our office building. He went up and down via a wooden staircase using his crutches. But one day in his mid-40's, I noticed he was a bit wobbly. So he lamented, "You know, Elliot, all my life I have never considered myself handicapped. But now I have bifocals. NOW I'm handicapped." So we soon had an elevator installed so he didn't have to go up and down that rickety staircase anymore.
This article is really about Max, but I can't help but mention that polio really sucks. I would say Max overcame polio and did not let it ruin his life, but it was not without great pain. He suffered immensely, especially later in life. Accordingly, I hope that parents will read this and factor Max's experience into their decision whether to protect their children from awful diseases. God bless you all.
