Press Releases
'Fireproof' East London inventor sweeps the board at INPEX 2004
16 June 2004
Keenan was singled out from over 1,500 inventors from 32 countries worldwide to win the overall prize for the world’s best invention. He also claimed five other awards at the show - the Best of Europe award, and four gold medals for various categories.
Keenan, a member of the East London Inventors Club at the University of East London (UEL), travelled to Pittsburgh with a just a suitcase containing a pot of his secret formula fireproof grease, with which he covers his hand with before applying a blowtorch at 1000 degrees Centigrade.
He also brought a laptop demonstration, created with the help of UEL’s Knowledge Dock, showing how his fireproofing formula can be applied to materials ranging from paper, polystyrene, MDF, resins and rubber to various building materials and even fuels.
For man whose inventions are set to revolutionise the manufacturing world, Keenan is in some ways an unlikely hero. Keenan, now sixty, lives with his wife Rita in Aveley in Essex, and has worked all his life as a painter and decorator, now helping his sons Patrick and Tony with the occasional job. However as a keen amateur chemist, he has been working in his spare time for 30 years to develop his fireproofing chemicals.
In recent years, he has amazed and baffled scientists around the world, including government chemists at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (now QinetiQ), and with the guidance of Professor David Nicholas of Business Link Wessex, and help from the Knowledge Dock at UEL, is currently setting up licensing deals with a number of multinational companies in the UK, Germany and the USA.
He also brought a laptop demonstration, created with the help of UEL’s Knowledge Dock, showing how his fireproofing formula can be applied to materials ranging from paper, polystyrene, MDF, resins and rubber to various building materials and even fuels.
For man whose inventions are set to revolutionise the manufacturing world, Keenan is in some ways an unlikely hero. Keenan, now sixty, lives with his wife Rita in Aveley in Essex, and has worked all his life as a painter and decorator, now helping his sons Patrick and Tony with the occasional job. However as a keen amateur chemist, he has been working in his spare time for 30 years to develop his fireproofing chemicals.
In recent years, he has amazed and baffled scientists around the world, including government chemists at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (now QinetiQ), and with the guidance of Professor David Nicholas of Business Link Wessex, and help from the Knowledge Dock at UEL, is currently setting up licensing deals with a number of multinational companies in the UK, Germany and the USA.
The potential of Keenan’s invention is enormous. The coatings and additives he has developed mean that fireproof building materials of every sort can be manufactured. He has also developed a range of fire retardants suitable for petrol and aviation fuel so that in the event of a spillage or crash, the fuel gives off a fire-damping gas.
Keenan claims his secret formulae are created from cheap, safe and easily obtainable chemicals, and other inventions that have baffled scientists include a chemical process to dissolve rubber and a solvent coating for floor fixtures and drain grilles of car factory spray shops.
Keenan says: “It was just a hobby for years. I first became interested in the idea of fireproofing in 1974 when I had the job of burning paint tins at Tilbury power station – I noticed some of the paint wouldn’t burn because it was mixing with the fuel ash from the floor. I never learned much at school, but taught myself organic chemistry from library books, and spent hours puzzling out the formulae. I bought chemicals with the petrol money and started experimenting in the shed.”
“I carried on inventing this stuff to fireproof different materials just for my own pleasure for fifteen years or so until a few years ago when I needed a loan for a van and showed my bank manager a fireproof cheque. I pulled out the blowlamp and gave them a demonstration, and all the bank staff were amazed – that’s when I realised I might be onto something.''
“I didn’t have a scientific education. My experiments make sense to me but they might not make sense to an industrial chemist because they are used to working in a certain way. If anyone else had developed these formulae we would probably already know about it because the industrial implications are huge - I just hope they can be developed so that everyone can benefit.”
He has never attempted to patent his processes, explaining, “patents are only as good as the money behind them, and they offer hardly any protection to the independent inventor as all the big companies have to do is wait 18 months then exploit your ideas. It would be a complete waste of time and money.” Instead, he maintains rigorous secrecy over the processes involved, and at every demonstration ensures that all surfaces are thoroughly washed down to ensure no trace of his product remains for analysis.
Rob Moss, Manager of the Knowledge Dock at UEL’s Docklands campus said: “Mike’s story is truly amazing. It is a privilege to work with such a talented inventor, and he deserves every success. We set up the East London Inventors Club to help local inventors protect their intellectual property and translate their fantastic ideas into world-beating products."
Keenan claims his secret formulae are created from cheap, safe and easily obtainable chemicals, and other inventions that have baffled scientists include a chemical process to dissolve rubber and a solvent coating for floor fixtures and drain grilles of car factory spray shops.
Keenan says: “It was just a hobby for years. I first became interested in the idea of fireproofing in 1974 when I had the job of burning paint tins at Tilbury power station – I noticed some of the paint wouldn’t burn because it was mixing with the fuel ash from the floor. I never learned much at school, but taught myself organic chemistry from library books, and spent hours puzzling out the formulae. I bought chemicals with the petrol money and started experimenting in the shed.”
“I carried on inventing this stuff to fireproof different materials just for my own pleasure for fifteen years or so until a few years ago when I needed a loan for a van and showed my bank manager a fireproof cheque. I pulled out the blowlamp and gave them a demonstration, and all the bank staff were amazed – that’s when I realised I might be onto something.''
“I didn’t have a scientific education. My experiments make sense to me but they might not make sense to an industrial chemist because they are used to working in a certain way. If anyone else had developed these formulae we would probably already know about it because the industrial implications are huge - I just hope they can be developed so that everyone can benefit.”
He has never attempted to patent his processes, explaining, “patents are only as good as the money behind them, and they offer hardly any protection to the independent inventor as all the big companies have to do is wait 18 months then exploit your ideas. It would be a complete waste of time and money.” Instead, he maintains rigorous secrecy over the processes involved, and at every demonstration ensures that all surfaces are thoroughly washed down to ensure no trace of his product remains for analysis.
Rob Moss, Manager of the Knowledge Dock at UEL’s Docklands campus said: “Mike’s story is truly amazing. It is a privilege to work with such a talented inventor, and he deserves every success. We set up the East London Inventors Club to help local inventors protect their intellectual property and translate their fantastic ideas into world-beating products."
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For details and pictures contact Patrick Wilson: 020 8223 2061 or 07951 797 975
