Originally Posted by
geoffvsjeff
... A couple just to try it out - maybe, if he was some technology geek who wanted to play around with the new supermetal. It is also my understanding that during the 1960s, almost all Ti was for the military, and people were just starting to be exposed to the material, so I am really unsure how he would have gotten the material to start with.
The guy was in LA and aerospace/military research is and pretty much has been the main industry of Southern California since the 50s. Could see if he was an engineer that he'd have been able to get his hands on some of it pretty easily. Ti alloys first appeared in aero/military apps in the mid 50s and then went commercial in the early 60s from what I know so it's totally possible he geeked out and made some. Agree with you though, that him making 20-30 probably didn't happen. The materials piece of the puzzle fits though.
Here's a quick history of Ti I found that more or less correlates with what I've gleaned over the last few years. You guys might find it interesting...
http://www.ing.unitn.it/~colombo/tel...ul_titanio.htm