{{short description|American sculptor and inventor}}{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Patricia Billings | image = Patricia b.jpg | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1926}} | birth_place = [[Clinton, Missouri]] | alma_mater = [[Amarillo College]] | occupation = sculptor, inventor | notable_works = Geobond }} '''Patricia Billings''' (born 1926) is a sculptor, inventor and businesswoman. She invented the building material Geobond.<ref name="WSJ" /> Billings has an entry in the ''Historical Encyclopedia of American Women Entrepreneurs, 1776 to the Present''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Oppedisano |first1=Jeannette M. |title=Historical Encyclopedia of American Women Entrepreneurs 1776 to the Present |date=2000 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=9780313306471 |pages=45–46}}</ref>
== Early life and education == Patricia Billings was born in 1926 in [[Clinton, Missouri]] to a farmer and his wife.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=http://people.com/archive/her-big-break-vol-46-no-25/|title=Her Big Break|work=PEOPLE.com|access-date=2018-03-30|quote=The daughter of a Clinton, Mo., farmer and his wife, she attended Kansas City Junior College and worked as a medical technologist studying fungal and bacterial diseases. She quit in 1947 when she married a plate-glass salesman, from whom she was later divorced. It was in 1956, while living in Texas, that she first studied art, at Amarillo College.|language=en}}</ref> She married a salesman and began working as a medical technologist, studying fungal and bacterial diseases at [[Kansas City Junior College]].<ref name=":0" /> She left that job in 1947 when she married; later she and her husband divorced.<ref name=":0" /> Billings worked as a [[tuberculosis]] researcher at Kansas City Hospital.<ref name="KCStar">{{cite news |last1=Bedford |first1=Melissa |title=Partnership pays off for Kansas City inventor |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/684760824/?terms=%22Patricia%2BBillings%22%2BGeobond |accessdate=6 November 2020 |publisher=The Kansas City Star |date=21 January 1996}}</ref>
In 1956 she began studying art at [[Amarillo College]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/patricia-billings|title=Patricia Billings {{!}} Lemelson-MIT Program|website=lemelson.mit.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-03-30}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/patentlyfemalefr00vare|title=Patently female : from AZT to TV dinners : stories of women inventors and their breakthrough ideas|last=Vare, Ethlie Ann.|date=2002|publisher=Wiley|others=Ptacek, Greg.|isbn=0471023345|location=New York|oclc=47183698|url-access=registration}}</ref> She made plaster of Paris sculptures,<ref name=":1" /> and in 1964 she opened a store in [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] where she sold many of her sculptures.<ref name=":2" /> She sculpted a [[swan]] and after she finished, it collapsed and broke into pieces. She then decided to make a stronger substance for creating her sculptures.<ref name="WSJ"/>
== Career == Billings began researching materials in manuscripts from the [[Renaissance|Renaissance Era]], where she learned that the plaster used in [[frescoes]] was fortified with a material similar to cement (but not cement); that material affected the chemical composition of the mixture, thereby strengthening it.<ref name=":2" /> Eight years later she invented, in her basement lab,<ref name=":2" /> the Geobond construction material.<ref name="AST">{{cite book |last1=Nava |first1=Alfonso |title=American Science and Technology |date=2000 |publisher=McGraw Hill, (original University of Texas Press) |isbn=9780072468717 |page=280 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GxJkAAAAMAAJ&q=Patricia+Billings+Geobond |accessdate=6 November 2020}}</ref><ref name="CBS News">{{cite news |title=Grandma's Goo |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/grandmas-goo/ |accessdate=15 November 2020 |publisher=CBS News |date=March 25, 1999}}</ref> She sent a 10-inch statue made of her new material to a scientist, who encouraged her to persist.<ref name="WSJ"/> In 1996, ''The Wall Street Journal'' published a profile of Billings that also described fire-resistance testing of Geobond by [[Underwriters Laboratories]], the [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] Fire Department, and a government lab at [[Edwards Air Force Base]].<ref name="WSJ"/>
Geobond research was initially funded by Billings.;<ref name="KCStar2">{{cite news|last1=Bedford|first1=Melissa|date=21 January 1996|title=Partnership pays off for Kansas City inventor|publisher=The Kansas City Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/684760824/?terms=%22Patricia%2BBillings%22%2BGeobond|accessdate=6 November 2020}}</ref> it was patented in 1997.<ref name="WDCAE">{{cite book |last1=Francini |first1=Frederini |last2=Garda |first2=Emilia |last3=Serazin |first3=Helena |last4=Groot |first4=Marjan |title=Women designers, craftswomen, architects and engineers between 1918 and 1945 |date=2017 |publisher=Založba ZRC |location=Slovenia |isbn=9789610500339 |page=2024 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iJiHDwAAQBAJ&q=Patricia%20Billings |accessdate=27 October 2020}}</ref> The resulting company, Geobond International Inc., began as a small 13-employee company in Kansas City, Missouri.<ref name=":0" /> Production was at a [[Lenexa, Kansas]] facility until the company moved to a larger factory in Kansas City in 1996.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Meyer|first=Gene|date=1996-05-03|title=KC product can take the heat part 1|pages=19|work=The Kansas City Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62641117/kc-product-can-take-the-heat-part-1/|access-date=2020-11-06|quote=Billings, 69, began developing the GeoBond formula several years ago in an effort to find something better than plaster with which to make castings of statues and other art objects.}}</ref><ref name="KC2">{{Cite news|date=1996-05-03|title=KC product can take the heat part 2|pages=24|work=The Kansas City Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62641167/kc-product-can-take-the-heat-part-2/|access-date=2020-11-07|quote=The wall tested by Underwriters Laboratories was made by putting GeoBond over metal lath and tarpaper. Billings and Michalski call it the FireTherm system.}}</ref> Billings along with Susan Michalski also invented the FireTherm wall system,<ref name="KCStar2" /> which combines [[metal lath]] and [[Tar paper|tarpaper]] with Geobond.<ref name="KC2"/> Building materials based on Geobond were available in over 20 markets throughout the world in 2006.<ref>{{cite web |title=Patricia Billings |url=https://www.engineering.com/Library/ArticlesPage/tabid/85/ArticleID/41/Patricia-Billings.aspx |publisher=Engineering.com |accessdate=27 October 2020}}</ref>
===Recognition=== ''[[Popular Mechanics]]'' named Billings, in 2020, one of "37 Women Who’ve Upended Science, Tech, and Engineering For the Better" for her invention of Geobond which was recognized for its non-carcinogenic properties.<ref name="Popular Mechanics">{{cite journal |last1=Linder |first1=Courtney |title=37 Women Who've Upended Science, Tech, and Engineering For the Better |journal=Popular Mechanics |date=February 2020 |url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a26998723/womens-history-month-stem-inventions/ |accessdate=27 October 2020}}</ref>
A book on women inventors, ''Patently Female'' (2002), calls Geobond the "world's first safe alternative to [[asbestos]]."<ref name=":2" /> Lemmelson-MIT notes its fireproof and resilient properties, calling it "the world's first workable replacement for asbestos."<ref name=":1" /> A 2017 book on women designers, craftswomen, architects and engineers states that the Geobond architectural material is an "indestructible, fire-proof and non-toxic building material.”<ref name="WDCAE" />
Billings's work has been featured in newspapers (including the ''[[St. Louis Post Dispatch]]'') and books (including ''Organizational Wisdom and Executive Courage'' and ''The Integration of the Humanities and Arts with Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Higher Education''.)<ref name="SLPD">{{cite news |title=Inventions for the workplace: If you build it, it will last |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/151906088/?terms=%22Patricia%2BBillings%22%2BGeobond |accessdate=6 November 2020 |publisher=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |date=25 March 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cooperrider |first1=David L. |last2=Srivastva |first2=Suresh |title=Organizational Wisdom and Executive Courage |date=1998 |publisher=New Lexington Press |isbn=9780787910945 |pages=90–91 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y_j07sN_94AC&q=Patricia%20Billings |accessdate=27 October 2020}}</ref><ref name="NAP">{{cite book |last1=Skorton |first1=David |last2=Bear, Editors |first2=Ashley |title=The Integration of the Humanities and Arts with Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Higher Education: Branches from the Same Tree |publisher=National Academies Press: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine |isbn=978-0-309-47061-2 |page=53 |url=https://www.informalscience.org/sites/default/files/24988.pdf |accessdate=5 November 2020|quote=History is full of examples of people who drew upon their talent and passion for science and art to drive new discoveries and advances...sculptor Patricia Billings invented “geobond” while trying to improve plaster}}</ref>
===Building material patents=== In addition to the invention of Geobond, Billings has received several patents for building materials including modular wall panels and roofing tiles.<ref name="McC" /><ref name="Patents">{{cite web |title=Patricia Billings patents |url=https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Patricia+Billings&num=100&oq=Patricia+Billings |website=Google patents |accessdate=27 October 2020}}</ref> These include: * 1997, US 5647180 A, Fire resistant building panel (Patricia Billings and Susan Michalski) * 1998, US 5795380 A, Lightweight roof tiles and method of production (Patricia Billings and Susan Michalski) * 2001, US 6230409 B1, Molded building panel and method of construction (Patricia Billings and Susan Michalski) * 2003, US 6557256 B2, Molded building panel and method of construction (Patricia Billings and Susan Michalski) * 2008, US 20080044648 A1, Heat protected construction members and method (Patricia Billings and David C. Rada)<ref name="McC">{{cite web |title=Patricia Billings, de escultora a inventora del Geobond® (25 March, 2016) |date=March 25, 2016 |url=https://mujeresconciencia.com/2016/03/25/patricia-billings-de-artista-a-inventora/ |publisher=Mu´jeres con Ciencia |accessdate=5 November 2020}}</ref>
Billings and Susan Michalski developed a patented process and design for modular, fire-resistant molded building panels using a [[Gypsum concrete|gypsum cement]] catalyst formula in layers between a framework of rigid studs.<ref name="Patent US6230409B1">{{cite web |last1=Billings |first1=Patricia |last2=Michalski |first2=Susan |last3=Earth Products, Ltd |title=Molded building panel and method of construction |url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US6230409B1/en |accessdate=5 November 2020}}</ref>
== Personal life == Billings married at age 21; she divorced 17 years later. She has a daughter and two grandsons.<ref name="WSJ">{{cite news |last1=Kumar |first1=Amal |title=New Fireproof Building Material May Be Alternative to Asbestos |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB843685409605589000 |accessdate=27 October 2020 |publisher=The Wall Street Journal |date=25 September 1996|quote=...she forwarded a sample to Heinz Poppendiek, an expert on thermal properties of matter who heads GeoScience Laboratories, an independent testing lab in San Diego. "I was surprised by its properties," he recalls. With some pointers from Dr. Poppendiek, Ms. Billings went to work on improving the material's heat-resistance and other properties.}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}} __FORCETOC__
{{DEFAULTSORT:Billings, Patricia}} [[Category:1926 births]] [[Category:20th-century American inventors]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:People from Clinton, Missouri]] [[Category:20th-century American women inventors]]