History On Plastic

Today’s plastics are one of the most used materials on a volume basis in U.S. industrial and commercial life. Plastics are broadly integrated into today’s lifestyle and make a major, irreplaceable contribution to virtually all product areas. Although the plastics industry in the United States is now in its second century, the most important developments have occurred since 1910. However, the roots of these modern developments go back not only to the research of cellulose nitrate by John Wesley Hyatt in the 1860s, but also to the plastic-like compositions used by man through the centuries.

One can go as far back as the Old Testament to find references about natural materials used as fillers, adhesives, coatings, and the like. These materials were the precursors of modern plastic materials. Historians continue to differ as to the exact year or decade that the plastics industry began because the definition of “plastic” is a matter of interpretation.

Certainly, the history of the rubber industry has a bearing on plastics. This is because ebonite, or hard rubber, discovered in 1851, was the first thermosetting material to be prepared and the first material that involved a distinct chemical modification of a natural material. But ebonite was not exploited commercially for some years after its discovery; for that reason, its historical importance has become somewhat blurred.

Source : www.plasticsindustry.org/AboutPlastics/content.cfm?ItemNumber=670

All About Plastic

The development of plastics is believed to have started around 1860, when Phelan and Collander, a U.S. pool and billiard ball company, offered a prize of $10,000 to the person who could design the best substitute for natural ivory. One of the entrants, although not the winner, was John Wesley Hyatt who developed a cellulose derivative for the contest. His product was later patented under the name Celluloid and was quite successful commercially, being used in the manufacture of products ranging from dental plates to men’s collars.

Over the next few decades, more and more plastics were introduced, including some modified natural polymers like rayon, made from cellulose products. Shortly after the turn of the century, Leo Hendrik Baekeland, a Belgian-American chemist, developed the first completely synthetic plastic which he sold under the name Bakelite.

Nylon was first prepared by Wallace H. Carothers of DuPont, but was set aside as having no useful characteristics, because in its initial form, nylon was a sticky material with little structural integrity. One day, Julian Hill, a chemist at DuPont, put a small amount of this nylon material on the end of a stirring rod and pulled it away from the remaining sticky mass, forming a string. Hill observed that the thread was quite strong and had a silky appearance and then realized that nylon, when drawn out, could be useful as a fiber.

Source : dwb4.unl.edu/Chem/CHEM869E/CHEM869ELinks/qlink.queensu.ca/~6jrt/chem210/Page2.html