Harriette Leidich

A few days ago I wondered what to prepare for my evening meal and came up with an omelette suggestion. I never liked eggs as a youngster but I have learned to eat them. An omelette just seemed to suit me on this particular day. So I brought out my Teflon skillet and proceeded to make my supper fare.

As I worked I began to think about that special vessel that I use for omelettes and how it came into being. My research informed me that skillets for omelette were made of Tefal in France at first. In the United States DuPont Laboratories in Wilmington, Delaware, began a serious task of developing something similar to Tefal, but with a greater intensity. We were acquainted with one of the DuPont Laboratories department heads who worked on this new development as an improvement over Tefal. In the process of development Teflon, as we know it today it went through the trials and errors of making a better product and came up with Teflon as the trade name. They patented it then as their product -- Teflon. The employee we spoke to said there were many pourings made to turn out the best slippery covering on the utensil. They patented Teflon and now most housewives own teflon-coated utensils.

After thinking about this discovery I had a greater appreciation of Teflon and was ready to slip my concoction onto my supper plate.

As an aside that I thought interesting I learned that Teflon has been applied to the 15,000 joints of the Statue of Liberty to slow her aging. No doubt I will envision the Statue of Liberty the next time I make an omelet.

Harriette Leidich is a Banner columnist who lives in North Bennington.