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Editor's Note: This article is part of the Utah Inventions series, which features all kinds of inventors and inventions with Utah ties. Tips for future articles can be sent to ncrofts@ksl.com. SALT LAKE CITY — In the mid-1900s, Bill Gore was determined to find a way to use polytetrafluorethylene, better known as PTFE or Teflon, to insulate wires and make them into ribbon cable for use in computers. With his son Bob’s help, he did more than make insulated wires for computers: he created various products for several different industries.
Bill Gore studied at the University of Utah, and his wife, Genevieve, was born in Salt Lake City. They had their first son, Bob, while living there.
Bill Gore later became an engineer at DuPont in Delaware, where he began imagining PTFE’s potential. To make his vision a reality, he had to labor outside of his regular work hours — and in his home’s basement. Things weren't working as he'd hoped. But then Bob Gore, who was a sophomore at the University of Delaware, suggested what turned out to be just the right thing.
This was the beginning. Due to their success, on January 1, 1958, Bill, Bob and Vieve Gore started their family company — W.L. Gore and Associates. It was also run right from their home. They called their first product the Multi-Tet cable.
Two years later, in 1960, the City of Denver asked for over seven miles of their cable. To meet with demands, the Gores built a factory. They invented new cables and their success kept growing.
For example, in 1969, they provided the cable used by Edwin Aldrin Jr. and Neil Armstrong on their lunar mission.
But the family's PTFE products extended beyond cables. Also in 1969, Bob Gore was working on stretching PTFE without success. Vexed, he pulled the PTFE forcefully. It expanded to about 800 percent; all of this time he’d been trying to do it slowly. This expanded PTFE, called ePTFE, was microporous and mostly air.
The ePTFE lengthened their horizons. They utilized it for fibers, tubes, membranes, filters, medical implants, textiles, and weather-proof Gore-Tex Fabrics, thus affecting numerous fields. Some of those fields include: pharmaceutical, oil, gas, aerospace, car, electrical, medical and clothing. Their products could do anything from keeping feet dry to helping save someone’s life.
What began as a family endeavor in a residential basement turned into an international company that affected multiple industries, showing how great things can start small.
