Sure.

Ben: Ohhhh! Amory: We asked Alex why he wouldnt tell us what the devil machine cuts. But because they are a Glitterex client, this source had a colleague who went to Glitterex for a normal supplier meeting and they poked into it on our behalf.

She added that you'd see some trace of glitter if you knew what it was.

The glitter may help with aesthetic purposes if anything. Ben: 300 gallons of glitter every week, or 15,600 gallons every year, is definitely buying in bulk. It's a really closely held secret. Why am I listening to you? Amory: Ho ho! I have a few sources in the paint industry who have gotten as excited about answering this mystery as we have been.

And if you call from jail I can put you on to any number of criminal defense attorneys who are my friends.

Ben: So if you're a Reddit fan, you should listen to the show anyway. John is pretty excited about a new pigment made from glass.

We think its paint but results from our paint experts are fundamentally inconclusive.

According to her, because the company does not want people to know under any circumstance that they're using glitter.

-The r/UnresolvedMysteries post about the glitter mystery-Joe Coburn's glitter manufacturer AMA, -"What Is Glitter," by Caity Weaver in The New York Times Magazine (12/21/18). But what a company like Glitterex is withholding is an innocent question and one that is of genuine interest to the public:Who is your biggest buyer? Alright.

In the cured form, it's a hard shell-like covering on the outside of fiberglass.

Glitter is in his DNA. And that's the The Devil. It's one of our oldest machines and it's been repurposed to cut one certain material that I can't say too much about. The colleagues who would be able to answer my questions?

Brannon: There's two main manufacturers of glitter in the United States.

Amory: Strip clubs (also mentioned by glitter conspiracy theorists)? Zach: I was like, "Oh man it's something it's something unusual. Well, when you consider how much glitter is used in our everyday items, from credit cards to fishing bait (for those fishing every day), this is a seemingly harmless way of using the product. Amory: His grandfather and his father were both in the business of manufacturing various reflective materials but not glitter. At the tone, please record your message. But it wasnt really the perfect time, since its Christmas week, and everyone in America is on vacation.

Is it cutting souls?

Zach Brooke: My name is Zach Brooke.

telling me you want to go.

Alex: Yeah.

Theyre engineered to duplicate how color comes off of butterfly wings or insects.

Amory: Dont worry guys, theres a couple of dorks with a microphone, a recorder, and a knack for diving down rabbit holes and searching out dead ends, at your service. I will return your call as soon as possible. Amory: So I sent an email but did not hear back. powder glitter interested chamki For some people, that mysterious "no comment" is whatever. Amory: John, I'm wondering though, the pigments and the other types of things that you're talking about, do you source those materials from a glitter company? Eeeh. Ben: Were talking to Joe Coburn, who used to work at his familys glitter company. You're just like, yeah. Ben: So were not playing it super cool, like muckraker reporters who are playing the long game. That is, not until his dad was sent to clean up a failed business they attempted to launch in Germany where he made a fateful discovery. For a company known as Glitterex in New Jersey, one of two of the largest glitter-making companies in the world, glitter proves to be a secretive, suspicious business. by the name of Ms. Dyer, who did not volunteer nor disclose information about who's responsible for giving the company most of its profit. It's a strange world but it really flies in the face of everything I know about radar absorbing materials and the rather rigorous science that's gone into its development, its production, and its upkeep. All of them seemed like good, if dicey, ideas. And Glitterexs biggest customer?

Thats a glitter bomb going off right now. Or maybe catch a lucky break. a rollicking dispatch from the Glitterex glitter factory, millions of tiny aluminum- or zinc-coated fibers, protect spacecraft from the temperature extremes. But the real mystery moment comes when the company rep wont tell Caity what industry is the biggest customer of Glitterex. This would also distinguish counterfeit money from, you know- real, 15 Back-To-School Movies and TV Episodes to Finish Summer Break, Why You'll Never Buy A Home | Honest Ads (VIDEO), DC's Original League Of Super-Pets Was Insane, The Tonight Show: 20 Fav Moments From Allen To Fallon, THE WORLD'S BIGGEST GLITTER BUYER IS A BIZARRE MYSTERY. What is it? Did you catch the topic of todays episode? For more of Oonas sarcasm and attempted wit, visit her website oonaoffthecuff.com.

Unfortunately for us, Armtec says its chaff is made of metalized glass fibers. Then theres very very very expensive flakes.

Ben: Why does the boat industry care whether or not we know it's the boat industry?

They are aluminized polyimidesclose cousins of the sheets that are chopped up for party decorations and makeup. He gives good pep talk.

Ben: Closed industry doesnt sound good and it matches what weve learned about glitter so far. He said it was a single customer product and he just couldnt say.

Maybe Gregs coming around to our conspiracy theorist point of view. Ben: If we get into some kind of trouble, will you pick up the phone if we call?

There's a reason that cars in the sun look really nice. ), Spacecraft. Food stuff? John: Super interesting, super clean.

Amory: Time to call some car paint companies! Amory: This particular factory, Glitterex, is located in Cranford, New Jersey. David: I'd start in the basic gumshoe arena.

Our email to Jeet.

Amory: Meanwhile,weset out to turn over some rocks. popsockets wholesale china glitter supplier

Wait wait wait this brings up questions. makson client list And why even if you could, you probably shouldn't.

Ben: Almost sight unseen.

Heads up that some elements (i.e. Joe: This could be vehicle paint for planes or boats or whatever, but in my mind it has to be glitter that sits in a liquid medium [because it] requires a lot more glitter. Is it still glitter if it hasnt been chopped up into a million pieces? Ben: Oooh mysterious! And so I present to you a half-baked Friday afternoon inquiry: seven potential industrial uses of glitter (hat tip to sleuths on Twitter and Reddit) where the clients might not want you to know they were working with a glitter company.

I mean, boat paint? Fishing bait. Or, of course, we could take Meadowbrook Joe at his word and assume that the answer is the least-interesting one possible, like the shiny paint on a pack of cigarettes or a bottle of beer. Greeting cards. Ben: Are you gonna tell us that Blue Velvet is gonna be out but Ocean Spray is gonna be in in 2025, or something like that? People would freak out if they knew that something they thought was valuable or that they consume in their bodies was, in part, this metallic or plastic glitter. Ben: First question: whats up with the secretive nature of the glitter industry? We like to consider ourselves the best with color. Did someone say aluminum-coated fibers? Alex Coburn: Mohlsdorf-Teichwolframsdorf.

Ben: And that seems to be as far as anyone has gotten on this story. Josh: But it's not high volume. David: One is you gotta go into the court system and scour the system for cases involving that company or the president of that company Where did he go to graduate school?

But its yeah, I cant., On Twitter, Weaver followed up: Please ask the smartest person in your family what the glitter industrys biggest market is, and reveal their answers here., I went one further: I asked Joe Colleran at Meadowbrook Inventions, the worlds leading glitter manufacturer.

(An Esterline representative had not responded to Slate as of press time.

Joe: Obviously, New Jersey is where the hotbed of glitter is. (Procter & Gamble PR did not respond to a request for comment by press time.).

Ben: Of the handful of companies making glitter, Joe describes his own family's business as the black sheep of the group. The r/UnresolvedMysteries post about the glitter mystery, "What Is Glitter," by Caity Weaver in The New York Times Magazine (12/21/18), Send us a direct message on Reddit. sequins rainbow sequin Thank you! We're from a public radio station in Boston.

Don't hesitate to reach out with reactions to episodes, ideas for future stories, feedback about the show, or just to say hi. And Polycryl gets its product from Gliterex. I see that ol Endless Thread bat signal in the sky! Amory: We were really screwed. John: Yeah effect pigments, that is definitely what we're talking about here. A little SECRECY from the automotive paint industry.

Amory: Were coming to you from WBUR, Bostons NPR station. 14ml pens glitter In New Jersey.

Richard: It's been over 30 years of that.

Its really that simple.. Ben: Until our producer, Josh, got the goods.

When asked if she knew the answer, she replied with an "Oh, God yes," followed by what was probably nervous laughter and a "And you would never guess it.

And when I say I know how much they use, I dont know the exact volumes, but Ive been in their plants and I've seen the drums of material.

But what's so secretive about shiny particles?

Something like that. Is it sparkly or Brannon: Anything that you want. It's a one-word answer, "yes." If they're repeatedly dodging a question, or if every company in the same industry is equally dodging the same question that brings, that raises my radar to say something is not right here. Small manufacturers protect client information to protect business. Voicemail recording: You have reached the voicemail of Nathan Long. But his muck rake was recently traded in for tree trimmers.

But can we let Frank Ocean sing it for us? Ben: Lightning round on industries that use glitter but are not the top customer of Glitterex. Ben: By the way, we offered Glitterex the chance to confirm or deny our findings. Amory: The herpes of craft supplies is the topic of an INSANELY POPULAR Reddit post from almost a year ago. Ben: Greg also made a prediction: that its totally possible the answer to our fundamental question is boring. Ben: One of the more popular shadowy theories is that glitter is used by the military. Joe: So my name is Joe Coburn. Ben: Joe Coburn, from the Coburn family glitter business RJA Plastics did say he would put us in touch with the current business owner, his younger brother, Alex. You gotta admit. Josh, well done. According to an October Pentagon report, theres only one remaining supplier of chaff to the Department of Defense: Esterline Defense Technologies, which manufactures the stuff in North Carolina under the subsidiary Armtec.

As our. 100 experts had killed theories and given us 100 more.

More and more competition from China and Taiwan, perhaps thanks to the machine that his dad sold decades ago. And so they've been kind of looking into it on our behalf. Ben: John, I think they should they should start a new Netflix show called The Great American Flaking Show. face painting supplies paint body list paints brands suppliers line fun Richard Aboulafia: Sounds a little odd to me. This article was written by a reporter named Caity Weaver. Glitter?

Amory: This was an Ask Me Anything thread.

Nah. Brannon: So in the liquid form its a viscous paint about the consistency of a ketchup, if you will. And even with all of our prep from David Boeri, Amory and I kind of make a couple of rookie mistakes right off the bat.

Amory: It still struck us as weird that glitter as an industry is so secretive.

Amory: I'm sitting across from Josh yesterday. Too expensive. Alex: We do have one machine that has a name. I live in Queens, New York.

You can imagine that fishing boats, jet skis, all that type of stuff, are very shiny. Amory: We really tried. Amory: Boat paint. If, say, a satellite-launching startup were looking for a Mylar substitute in small quantities without paying for the DuPont brand name or buying at the markups of the military-industrial complex, could it just turn to any old glitter factory?

Humanity is pretty good at dumping trash into the ocean in terrible ways, but were not doing this with glitter on purpose.