Patricia Billings Explained

Patricia Billings
Birth Place:Clinton, Missouri
Alma Mater:Amarillo College
Occupation:sculptor, inventor
Notable Works:Geobond

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

Early life and education

Patricia Billings was born in 1926 in Clinton, Missouri to a farmer and his wife.[2] She married a salesman and began working as a medical technologist, studying fungal and bacterial diseases at Kansas City Junior College. She left that job in 1947 when she married; later she and her husband divorced. Billings worked as a tuberculosis researcher at Kansas City Hospital.[3]

In 1956 she began studying art at Amarillo College.[4] [5] She made plaster of Paris sculptures, and in 1964 she opened a store in Kansas City where she sold many of her sculptures. 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.

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. Eight years later she invented, in her basement lab, the Geobond construction material.[6] [7] She sent a 10-inch statue made of her new material to a scientist, who encouraged her to persist. 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.

Geobond research was initially funded by Billings.;[8] it was patented in 1997.[9] The resulting company, Geobond International Inc., began as a small 13-employee company in Kansas City, Missouri. Production was at a Lenexa, Kansas facility until the company moved to a larger factory in Kansas City in 1996.[10] [11] Billings along with Susan Michalski also invented the FireTherm wall system, which combines metal lath and tarpaper with Geobond.[11] Building materials based on Geobond were available in over 20 markets throughout the world in 2006.[12]

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.[13]

A book on women inventors, Patently Female (2002), calls Geobond the "world's first safe alternative to asbestos." Lemmelson-MIT notes its fireproof and resilient properties, calling it "the world's first workable replacement for asbestos." 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.”

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.)[14] [15] [16]

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.[17] These include:

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.[19]

Personal life

Billings married at age 21; she divorced 17 years later. She has a daughter and two grandsons.[20]

References

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Notes and References

  1. Book: Oppedisano . Jeannette M. . Historical Encyclopedia of American Women Entrepreneurs 1776 to the Present . 2000 . Greenwood Press . 9780313306471 . 45–46.
  2. News: Her Big Break. PEOPLE.com. 2018-03-30. 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.. en.
  3. News: Bedford . Melissa . Partnership pays off for Kansas City inventor . 6 November 2020 . The Kansas City Star . 21 January 1996.
  4. Web site: Patricia Billings Lemelson-MIT Program. lemelson.mit.edu. en. 2018-03-30.
  5. Book: Vare, Ethlie Ann.. Patently female : from AZT to TV dinners : stories of women inventors and their breakthrough ideas. 2002. Wiley. Ptacek, Greg.. 0471023345. New York. 47183698. registration.
  6. Book: Nava . Alfonso . American Science and Technology . 2000 . McGraw Hill, (original University of Texas Press) . 9780072468717 . 280 . 6 November 2020.
  7. News: Grandma's Goo . 15 November 2020 . CBS News . March 25, 1999.
  8. News: Bedford. Melissa. 21 January 1996. Partnership pays off for Kansas City inventor. The Kansas City Star. 6 November 2020.
  9. Book: Francini . Frederini . Garda . Emilia . Serazin . Helena . Groot . Marjan . Women designers, craftswomen, architects and engineers between 1918 and 1945 . 2017 . Založba ZRC . Slovenia . 9789610500339 . 2024 . 27 October 2020.
  10. News: Meyer. Gene. 1996-05-03. KC product can take the heat part 1. 19. The Kansas City Star. 2020-11-06. 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..
  11. News: 1996-05-03. KC product can take the heat part 2. 24. The Kansas City Star. 2020-11-07. The wall tested by Underwriters Laboratories was made by putting GeoBond over metal lath and tarpaper. Billings and Michalski call it the FireTherm system..
  12. Web site: Patricia Billings . Engineering.com . 27 October 2020.
  13. Linder . Courtney . 37 Women Who've Upended Science, Tech, and Engineering For the Better . Popular Mechanics . February 2020 . 27 October 2020.
  14. News: Inventions for the workplace: If you build it, it will last . 6 November 2020 . St. Louis Post-Dispatch . 25 March 2007.
  15. Book: Cooperrider . David L. . Srivastva . Suresh . Organizational Wisdom and Executive Courage . 1998 . New Lexington Press . 9780787910945 . 90–91 . 27 October 2020.
  16. Book: 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 . National Academies Press: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine . 978-0-309-47061-2 . 53 . 5 November 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.
  17. Web site: Patricia Billings patents . Google patents . 27 October 2020.
  18. Web site: Patricia Billings, de escultora a inventora del Geobond® (25 March, 2016) . March 25, 2016 . Mu´jeres con Ciencia . 5 November 2020.
  19. Web site: Billings . Patricia . Michalski . Susan . Earth Products, Ltd . Molded building panel and method of construction . 5 November 2020.
  20. News: Kumar . Amal . New Fireproof Building Material May Be Alternative to Asbestos . 27 October 2020 . The Wall Street Journal . 25 September 1996. ...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..

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