Page 174 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

plastics 1475

for almost a century (polystyrene had been discovered in social snobs who always insisted that natural products
1839), but they had not hitherto been a commercial suc- were better), plastics were regarded as cheap, tacky, and
cess. Polyvinvyl chloride (PVC), for instance, decom- generally nasty by the mid-1960s. This was a result of
posed on the hot rollers used to turn it into sheets. By the poor manufacturing techniques by some of the mom-
mid-1930s, however, the American corporation Union and-pop operations that had entered the industry, as well
Carbide and the German firm I.G. Farben had inde- as the use of plastics to make cheap items such as fair-
pendently succeeded in producing types of PVC which ground gewgaws and novelties for crackers.
could be turned into flooring, cable covering, and house-
hold goods.The German firm of Rohm & Haas was suc- Plastics Become
cessfully developing polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA, Sophisticated
better known as Perspex or Plexiglas) in collaboration Despite their popular image, plastics were growing in
with its American counterpart. In 1933 the British chem- technical sophistication in the 1950s and 1960s. Glass-
ical firm ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) had, by fiber-reinforced composites enabled the production of
chance, discovered polyethylene (Polythene), which light but very strong casings, which are now widely used
showed promise as a light insulator.The industry was ini- in the aerospace and transport industries. Teflon had
tially held back by the lack of any serious demand for been discovered by accident in 1938, but Du Pont was
these new materials, but the situation was transformed opposed to its use in cooking utensils, and the first non-
by World War II. PVC was used as a substitute for rub- stick pans, made without the firm’s approval, did not
ber and other materials, PMMA was used to make air- appear until 1960. In the 1960s there was a growing
craft cockpits, and polyethylene was used in radar sets. demand for heat-resistant plastics, partly because of the
Polyurethanes (used in foams, shoe soles, and stretch fab- space program (and the growing popularity of ready
rics) were a German innovation which was developed in meals) and partly because of the withdrawal of asbestos
the United States in the 1950s. on health grounds.
The plastics industry also devoted considerable effort
Plastics Become Common to developing substitutes for glass, a potentially enor-
After the war ended, the plastics industry needed to find mous market. The polycarbonates, a virtually unbreak-
new outlets for its products. Polyethylene was converted able, vandal-proof material used for street lighting, public
into washing-up bowls (dishpans), squeeze bottles, and shelters, and safety visors was developed independently
Tupperware dishes. PVC displaced fragile shellac in long- by General Electric and the German firm Bayer in the
playing records. PMMA was used to make jukeboxes. late 1950s. At the other end of the hardness spectrum,
Plastics were also used extensively in house building, and soft contact lenses were first made by a Czech chemist,
in toys, for instance, hula hoops and Barbie (who was Otto Wichterle, using a chemical relative of PMMA, in
“born” in 1959). Hula hoops were among the first exam- 1961. Attempts to make drink containers from plastics
ples of a new plastic called high-density polyethylene were initially unsuccessful, but a Du Pont team headed
which first appeared in the mid-1950s.This strategy suc- by Nat Wyeth (a member of the famous family of artists)
ceeded beyond the industry’s expectations. While the was able to blow drinks bottles from polyester resin (bet-
period between 1945 and 1973 was a highly successful ter known as a synthetic fabric) for Pepsi in 1975.
one for the plastics industry in terms of technology, pro-
duction, and profits, the popular image of plastics even- Crunch Time for Plastics
tually took a tumble. Whereas Bakelite had been The plastics industry, which used petroleum as its raw
considered high tech and stylish in the 1930s (except by material, was badly affected by the oil crisis of 1973,