[po]'s comments about her painting tribulations got me thinking about the difficulties in sealing things off from air. I suggested that oil might be added to the paint, to form a thin air-impermeable layer, but then the problem is that the oil would be hard to remove. The same problem would occur with wine or other drinkables.
The Viscoseal product is a plasticized wax with a lardlike consistency. When hot it is a thick pourable liquid. When cool it thickens to an extremely viscous, slowly flowing solid akin to Silly Putty or pitch. It is a wax, so is lighter than water. If added hot to a container of liquid, it will spread like oil to cover the top. If added cold, the lump will gradually spread to cover the top, just as the same lump placed on the table will gradually flatten out. When cool, the Viscoseal can simply be grabbed and removed as a rubbery disc. Alternatively, wine could be poured out from under the viscoseal, which will gradually flow back to cover the new surface.
Viscoseal can also be used on solids. If you have a piece of cheese or food, a solid piece of Viscoseal can be placed on top. Over the day, it will flow down over the food to form an airtight seal. This can be easily peeled off at a later time.
Viscoseal is nonreactive and nontoxic. No animals were harmed in the making of Viscoseal.-- bungston, Aug 06 2003 [Po]'s paint idea with the long name. http://www.halfbake...n_20a_20heatwave_2eMy inspiration. [bungston, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Silly Putty components http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20010406.html [bungston, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004] (?) Silicon Oil http://www.sigmaald...Tpage/HS_ProdDetail [bungston, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004] What is the makeup of this stuff, roughly? Petroleum based, polymer or what?-- bristolz, Aug 06 2003 Very kind of you to give me a chance to WIBNI-proof my idea, [bristolz]. I will take a swing at it. Silicon oils are not very reactive and would be a fine place to start. I have linked the formula for Silly Putty as well as a PDF which gets more into the polymer chemistry. The brittleness of Silly Putty is not necessary for the Viscoseal product.
It may be that very long chain silicon oils will be viscous enough to carry this off - a very high molecular weight oil. Two things I can think of to help hold the silicon oil together at lower temperatured but soften it up at high temperatures would be some crosslinking (more crosslinks = rubberier) and hydrogenation, which makes oils thicker like margarine.-- bungston, Aug 06 2003 Maybe a lump of Viscoseal a day is Sheriff Crump's secret.-- bungston, Aug 06 2003 i like it. an air tight seal that fits any shaped object that does the work for you, all you do is put it on top and let it drip into place.
sounds like a million doller idea. people will buy it because its simple and easy and all you have to do is be patient... oh wait, people arent patient... it'll never sell.-- HalfwayHebrew, Aug 06 2003 Isn't this like the stuff they coat cheeses with?-- FloridaManatee, Aug 07 2003 Not any cheese I'd buy. That's usually wax and not some mysterious, continuously flowing silicon hybrid.-- bristolz, Aug 07 2003 Ewe rang?-- thumbwax, Aug 07 2003 Nah, that'd be goat cheese, or, sheep cheese?-- bristolz, Aug 07 2003 I want 'mysterious, continuously-flowing silicon hybrid' as my username.-- RayfordSteele, Aug 07 2003 random, halfbakery