Patricia Billings

Patricia Billings (born 1926) is a sculptor, inventor and businesswoman. She invented the building material Geobond.[1] Billings has an entry in the Historical Encyclopedia of American Women Entrepreneurs, 1776 to the Present.[2]

Patricia Billings
Born1926 (age 96–97)
Clinton, Missouri
Alma materAmarillo College
Occupation(s)sculptor, inventor
Notable workGeobond

Early life and education

Patricia Billings was born in 1926 in Clinton, Missouri to a farmer and his wife.[3] She married a salesman and began working as a medical technologist, studying fungal and bacterial diseases at Kansas City Junior College.[3] She left that job in 1947 when she married; later she and her husband divorced.[3] Billings worked as a tuberculosis researcher at Kansas City Hospital.[4]

In 1956 she began studying art at Amarillo College.[5][6] She made plaster of Paris sculptures,[5] and in 1964 she opened a store in Kansas City where she sold many of her sculptures.[6] She sculpted a swan and after she finished, it collapsed and broke into pieces. She then decided to make a stronger substance for creating her sculptures.[1]

Career

Billings began researching materials in manuscripts from the Renaissance Era, where she learned that the plaster used in frescoes was fortified with a material similar to cement (but not cement); that material affected the chemical composition of the mixture, thereby strengthening it.[6] Eight years later she invented, in her basement lab,[6] the Geobond construction material.[7][8] She sent a 10-inch statue made of her new material to a scientist, who encouraged her to persist.[1] In 1996, The Wall Street Journal published a profile of Billings that also described fire-resistance testing of Geobond by Underwriters Laboratories, the Kansas City Fire Department, and a government lab at Edwards Air Force Base.[1]

Geobond research was initially funded by Billings.;[9] it was patented in 1997.[10] The resulting company, Geobond International Inc., began as a small 13-employee company in Kansas City, Missouri.[3] Production was at a Lenexa, Kansas facility until the company moved to a larger factory in Kansas City in 1996.[11][12] Billings along with Susan Michalski also invented the FireTherm wall system,[9] which combines metal lath and tarpaper with Geobond.[12] Building materials based on Geobond were available in over 20 markets throughout the world in 2006.[13]

Recognition

Popular Mechanics named Billings, in 2020, one of "37 Women Who’ve Upended Science, Tech, and Engineering For the Better" for her invention of Geobond which was recognized for its non-carcinogenic properties.[14]

A book on women inventors, Patently Female (2002), calls Geobond the "world's first safe alternative to asbestos."[6] Lemmelson-MIT notes its fireproof and resilient properties, calling it "the world's first workable replacement for asbestos."[5] A 2017 book on women designers, craftswomen, architects and engineers states that the Geobond architectural material is an "indestructible, fire-proof and non-toxic building material.”[10]

Billings's work has been featured in newspapers (including the St. Louis Post Dispatch) and books (including Organizational Wisdom and Executive Courage and The Integration of the Humanities and Arts with Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Higher Education.)[15][16][17]

Building material patents

In addition to the invention of Geobond, Billings has received several patents for building materials including modular wall panels and roofing tiles.[18][19] These include:

  • 1997, US 5647180 A, Fire resistant building panel (Patricia Billings and Susan Michalski)
  • 1998, US 5795380 A, Lightweight roof tiles and method of production (Patricia Billings and Susan Michalski)
  • 2001, US 6230409 B1, Molded building panel and method of construction (Patricia Billings and Susan Michalski)
  • 2003, US 6557256 B2, Molded building panel and method of construction (Patricia Billings and Susan Michalski)
  • 2008, US 20080044648 A1, Heat protected construction members and method (Patricia Billings and David C. Rada)[18]

Billings and Susan Michalski developed a patented process and design for modular, fire-resistant molded building panels using a gypsum cement catalyst formula in layers between a framework of rigid studs.[20]

Personal life

Billings married at age 21; she divorced 17 years later. She has a daughter and two grandsons.[1]

References
  1. Kumar, Amal (September 25, 1996). "New Fireproof Building Material May Be Alternative to Asbestos". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 27, 2020. ...she forwarded a sample to Heinz Poppendiek, an expert on thermal properties of matter who heads GeoScience Laboratories, an independent testing lab in San Diego. "I was surprised by its properties," he recalls. With some pointers from Dr. Poppendiek, Ms. Billings went to work on improving the material's heat-resistance and other properties.
  2. Oppedisano, Jeannette M. (2000). Historical Encyclopedia of American Women Entrepreneurs 1776 to the Present. Greenwood Press. pp. 45–46. ISBN 9780313306471.
  3. "Her Big Break". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved March 30, 2018. The daughter of a Clinton, Mo., farmer and his wife, she attended Kansas City Junior College and worked as a medical technologist studying fungal and bacterial diseases. She quit in 1947 when she married a plate-glass salesman, from whom she was later divorced. It was in 1956, while living in Texas, that she first studied art, at Amarillo College.
  4. Bedford, Melissa (January 21, 1996). "Partnership pays off for Kansas City inventor". The Kansas City Star. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
  5. "Patricia Billings | Lemelson-MIT Program". lemelson.mit.edu. Retrieved March 30, 2018.
  6. Vare, Ethlie Ann. (2002). Patently female : from AZT to TV dinners : stories of women inventors and their breakthrough ideas. Ptacek, Greg. New York: Wiley. ISBN 0471023345. OCLC 47183698.
  7. Nava, Alfonso (2000). American Science and Technology. McGraw Hill, (original University of Texas Press). p. 280. ISBN 9780072468717. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
  8. "Grandma's Goo". CBS News. March 25, 1999. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  9. Bedford, Melissa (January 21, 1996). "Partnership pays off for Kansas City inventor". The Kansas City Star. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
  10. Francini, Frederini; Garda, Emilia; Serazin, Helena; Groot, Marjan (2017). Women designers, craftswomen, architects and engineers between 1918 and 1945. Slovenia: Založba ZRC. p. 2024. ISBN 9789610500339. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  11. Meyer, Gene (May 3, 1996). "KC product can take the heat part 1". The Kansas City Star. p. 19. Retrieved November 6, 2020. Billings, 69, began developing the GeoBond formula several years ago in an effort to find something better than plaster with which to make castings of statues and other art objects.
  12. "KC product can take the heat part 2". The Kansas City Star. May 3, 1996. p. 24. Retrieved November 7, 2020. The wall tested by Underwriters Laboratories was made by putting GeoBond over metal lath and tarpaper. Billings and Michalski call it the FireTherm system.
  13. "Patricia Billings". Engineering.com. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  14. "Inventions for the workplace: If you build it, it will last". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. March 25, 2007. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
  15. Cooperrider, David L.; Srivastva, Suresh (1998). Organizational Wisdom and Executive Courage. New Lexington Press. pp. 90–91. ISBN 9780787910945. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  16. Skorton, David; Bear, Editors, Ashley. The Integration of the Humanities and Arts with Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Higher Education: Branches from the Same Tree (PDF). National Academies Press: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-309-47061-2. Retrieved November 5, 2020. History is full of examples of people who drew upon their talent and passion for science and art to drive new discoveries and advances...sculptor Patricia Billings invented "geobond" while trying to improve plaster {{cite book}}: |last2= has generic name (help)
  17. "Patricia Billings, de escultora a inventora del Geobond® (25 March, 2016)". Mu´jeres con Ciencia. March 25, 2016. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
  18. "Patricia Billings patents". Google patents. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  19. Billings, Patricia; Michalski, Susan; Earth Products, Ltd. "Molded building panel and method of construction". Retrieved November 5, 2020.
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