This looks like an interesting new product that may well have applications for the whistle community. There is a Webinar coming up at a dashed inconvenient time for me, some of youse may be interested. Contact is thru webinar@liqui-glide.com .
Yes, it is an interesting development. My younger son is a materials engineer studying bio engineering. Liqui-glide has won some inovation awards this past year. We were amused when the demo videos made the rounds recently. It has the properties to address the “slow as molasses in January” paradigm, literally.
I had not even thought of it as a potential whistle product - Liqui-glide anti-clogging treatment. Good thinking, Erle.
Feadoggie
Dun’t 'arf look like silicone to me. Do you happen to know what it’s made of, Feadoggie? I certainly wouldn’t trust the many sites claiming that it’s “edible” or “non-toxic” unless I knew for sure what was in it.
No I don’t. The Varanasi Group has only stated that it is a natural, plant-based gel and that it is FDA approved. When we saw it we had been talking about bio-medical applications like coating stents so they would not clog up with plaque. Earlier coated stents have had issues. Liqui-glide as far as we know would not be sold as a consumer product but would be sold directly to industry for product manufacturing - like in condiment bottles.
Feadoggie
OK. Thanks, Feadoggie. I guess in years to come, that’ll be another range of products I’ll have to avoid, unless they come clean about what’s in it. Because, so far, they seem to be going out of their way to hide what’s in it. Which I find strange.
LiquiGlide
… sounds like a model-name from a Harley Davidson motorcycle catalogue 
Our imaginations differ.. I am thinking more of ‘we always send in a plain discreet wrapper’ - companies 
To save a Google search…
Demo video
http://www.liqui-glide.com/applications/
How it is applied
http://www.liqui-glide.com/technology/
Not really strange, Ben. They’re still waiting for patent protections for their invention. These boys are going to be billionaires if the product takes off, and in their position I’d be close-lipped at this point, too. Not that there might not be unforeseen risks. But I do tend to trust the honesty of engineers, because engineering culture encourages that. I they say it’s safe, I’m sure they believe it is. And the range of possible applications is mind-boggling.
This reminds me of the unquenchable meme that the secret ingredient in WD-40 is fish oil. 
It seems more of a process than a thing. Have microscopic texture that fills with a lubricant. Decide on the best possible properties for that lubricant, and sandwich it on a surface. I am sure that as they develop it it will be significantly different for different applications. A car windshield will have different components than a Ketchup bottle. This is not something like Rain-X that is sprayed on and is the same for all applications.
It is like ball bearings. Describe what they are made of? Are they food grade? What are they made of? Plastic? Ceramic? What temperature range will they be exposed to? How durable is it? In fact, the images of the surface reminds me of a bed of ball bearings. (Liquid pockets held to a solid surface by capillary action?) The publications are behind a pay wall, so difficult to really know all the details.
And do we really know what is in the bottles? What kind of glass, which process? Plastics? how about those releasing compounds used to make them? What is the metallic content of the cap? What is the protective lining under the cap made of? That sticker on my apple saying it is organic, what is in that adhesive? Can it be organic if it uses an inorganic sticker? At some point I stop researching and delegate that responsibility to someone else. Not that I trust engineers, the FDA or anything like that, I just make a cost benefit decision at some point. Even then I prefer transparency.