The history of the experimental study of nonlinear lattice excitations in layered silicate materials, when exposed to swift particles of appreciable momentum is described briefly. For brevity, and because of the difficulty of studying the structure of the lattice excitations, the term quodon was adopted to reflect their ballistic and quasione-dimensional propagative nature. Quodons in muscovite were observed experimentally. Eventually, it was deduced that the lattice excitations were carrying an electric charge. This led to the prediction of hyperconductivity (HC) in which charge is carried ballistically by neutral, mobile lattice excitations in absence of a driving electromotive force and at any temperature. HC was later observed experimentally. For practical applications of HC, it is necessary to encase the HC material in an insulating sheath. This focused attention on the behavior of insulating materials in the presence of quodons. These could enter the sheath by direct contact with the HC material or by the impact of the swift particles. It was found that quodons can exist and propagate in many different materials, perhaps all, but their behavior can vary dramatically. This universality and charge neutrality, together with their unexpected existence in the excellent insulator polytetrafluoroethylene, probably accounts for the delay in finding evidence of their existence.
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