Text g Plastics

Synthetic plastics quite literally molded the material culture of the 20th century. So profound was their effect on mass consumerism that the period could be described as "The Plastics Age". As early as the 15th century, however, natural plastics such as shellac (The resin from a tropical beetle), casein (produced from milk curds) and keratin (a protein found in hair, fur, bone, nails, horn) were used in the manufacture of luxury goods. Tim development of the first modern plastic is generally credited to the English chemist arid inventor Alexander Parkes (1813-1890). During the 1840s, he discovered that wood-dust or cotton fiber, when dissolved in nitric acid or sulphuric acid and then combined with castor oil and chloroform produced a dough-like substance that when dried looked remarkably like ivory or horn. This form of cellulose nitrate, scientifically known as pyroxylin, was difficult to work with because of its explosive nature and its inherent brittleness. Parkes subsequently set up a company in manufacture this serine synthetic plastic, which he named Parkesine, but it went- into roceivershin in 1868. in America, John Wesley Blyatt (1837 -1920) continued to search for something better than Parkesine which he could a synthetic alternative to ivory to make billiard balls. By mixing camphor under pressure with cellulose nitrate, he was able to solve the problem of brittleness and in 1869 he painted the first practical semi-synthetic plastic under the name of Celluloid. During the 1870s and 1880s Celluloid was used in the manufacture of all kinds of objects, including hair combs, brushes, buttons, hand mirrors, letter openers and dice. It could also be made to imitate ivory, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl and amber. Although significantly cheaper than these luxury materials, Celluloid was still relatively expensive and consequently did not suffer from the associations of cheapness that dogged successive synthetic materials. 1889 George Eastman's firm (later renamed the Eastman Kodak Co.) marked the first commercial transparent, flexible camera film made of Celluloid. From 1904, the Belgian-trained chemist and entrepreneur Leo Baekeland (1863-1444) worked on the development of the first completely synthetic plastic and in 1907 perfected the manufacture of phenol-formaldehyde resin (also known as phenolic resin). Better known under its trade name Bakelite, this revolutionary material wasproducted commercially from 1910 and was marketed as “the material of thousand uses). Phenolic resin was initially used as a coating material, especially for metals, and as an adhesive, before being employed as molding powder, It was remarkably suited to molding processes and from the 1920s onwards considerably changed the aesthetic of many industrially-manufactured products, in 1928 a method was perfected for "casting" phenolic resins without the need of a filler, such as had previously been required for the production of Bakelite and other synthetic thermoses plastics (I. e. plastics that solidify on heating and cannot be remelted or reformed without decomposing). It was now possible to cast phenolic resins in a wide range of bright colors. These strong, non-flammable and colorful materials were used for numerous articles including napkin rings and jewellery. Urea-formaldehyde thermoses resins were widely used from the late 1920s, including a product marketed under the trade name of Plaskon. With the development of melamine-formaldehyde in the late 1930s, urea-based plastic laminates gave way to Formica laminates.

Thanks to their easy manipulation, economical production, corrosion resistance and suitability to industrial processes, plastics remain among the most popular and useful materials. The highly innovative treatment of various advanced techno-polymers by some of today’s most talented industrial designers has led recently to a significant reappraisal of the aesthetic of plastics in general.