German superplasticity research (1938, lost in WWII)

Companion to the Backofen case. Original superplasticity measurement on fine-grain material in a 1938 German paper, lost in the war.

Backofen rediscovered superplasticity. He found a 1938 paper from Germany where they had measured superplasticity with very fine grain material. Because of World War II it got lost. It wasn't until the early '60s that Backofen rediscovered it. I will bring in some of Backofen's original samples — I was, you know, the short little door 8137 as you walk down around the corner from the infinite corridor, that was my first office. I shared it as an assistant professor with Backofen's last doctoral students, and I picked up many of his samples. When I teach deformation processing, you're going to see Al Backofen's samples, his touchy-feelies, to pass around the room. These superplasticity samples should be in the Smithsonian. We couldn't build jet engines without superplasticity.