Daedalus once devised a mist-proof plastic for lenses, windows, and so on. He charred its surface with a laser and treated it with fluorine, converting it to graphite fluoride, the most water-repellent substance known. Water drops simply could not adhere. He now plans to extend the idea to wood, leather and similar organics.

Such materials are porous. Water does not merely condense on them; it penetrates, and acts as a medium for biological decay. But how to char their vast internal porosity with a few monolayers of graphite?

Strong sulphuric acid is notorious for charring organic materials. It abstracts the elements of water from their molecules, leaving carbon. Sulphur trioxide, says Daedalus, is in effect dehydrated sulphuric acid. It should extract hydrogen and oxygen from organics even more avidly. Being easily volatile, it could permeate into the most porous material. Dilution with inert gas could limit its charring action to a few monolayers of surface. Diluted fluorine would then convert the graphite to its fluoride. All internal porosities, however complex, would be perfectly waterproofed.

DREADCO chemists are now trying it. They are exposing oars, pairs of boots, plywood shingles, woollen socks, carpets and similar objects to sequences of vapours in a large pressure-vessel. When the process has been perfected, these products will emerge utterly waterproof. Even under high pressure, water will not wet them, let alone enter their pores. But like lesser ‘breathable’ waterproof fabrics (some of which are also based on fluorocarbon polymers), they will still be freely permeable to air and water vapour.

This elegant process will transform many technologies. The British building industry is dominated by fear of wood-rot. The first waterproofed, unpainted wooden buildings, flaunting their appealing natural grain against the now impotent weather, will arouse amazement and disbelief. So will truly waterproof boots, fabrics that need no washing (and indeed cannot be washed — water, like dirt, simply falls off them), and wooden boats that slip unwetted through the water. Daedalus even hopes to waterproof human skin. A waterproof swimmer would break all Olympic records. The slow renewal of the skin would gradually remove the coating.