The development of plastics can be traced back to mid-19th. At that time, in order to meet the needs of the booming textile industry in the UK, chemists mixed different chemicals together, hoping to make bleach and dye. Chemists are particularly fond of coal tar, which is curd-like waste condensed in factory chimneys fueled by natural gas.

William Henry Platinum, a laboratory assistant at the Royal Institute of Chemistry in London, was one of the people who carried out this experiment. One day, when platinum was wiping the chemical reagents spilled on the bench in the laboratory, it was discovered that the rag was dyed into a lavender that was rarely seen at the time. This accidental discovery made platinum enter the dyeing industry and eventually became a millionaire.
Although the discovery of platinum is not plastic, this accidental discovery is of great significance because it shows that man-made compounds can be obtained by controlling natural organic materials. Manufacturers have realized that many natural materials such as wood, amber, rubber, and glass are either too scarce or too expensive or not suitable for mass production because they are too expensive or not sufficiently flexible. Synthetic materials are an ideal substitute. It can change shape under heat and pressure, and it can also maintain shape after cooling.
Colin Williamson, founder of the London Society for the History of Plastics, said: “At that time, people were faced with finding a cheap and easy-to-change alternative.”
After platinum, another Englishman, Alexander Parks, mixed chloroform with castor oil to obtain a substance as hard as animal antlers. This was the first artificial plastic. Parks hopes to use this man-made plastic to replace rubber that cannot be widely used due to planting, harvesting, and processing costs.
New Yorker John Wesley Hyatt, a blacksmith, tried to make billiard balls with artificial materials instead of billiard balls made of ivory. Although he did not solve this problem, he found that by mixing camphor with a certain amount of solvent, a material that can change shape after heating can be obtained. Hyatt calls this material celluloid. This new type of plastic has the characteristics of being mass-produced by machines and unskilled workers. It brings to the film industry a strong and flexible transparent material that can project images onto the wall.
Celluloid also promoted the development of the home record industry, and eventually replaced the early cylindrical records. Later plastics can be used to make vinyl records and cassette tapes; finally, polycarbonate is used to make compact discs.
Celluloid makes photography an activity with a broad market. Before George Eastman developed celluloid, photography was a costly and cumbersome hobby because the photographer had to develop the film himself. Eastman came up with a new idea: the customer sent the finished film to the store he opened, and he developed the film for the customer. Celluloid is the first transparent material that can be made into a thin sheet and can be rolled up into a camera.
At about this time, Eastman met a young Belgian immigrant, Leo Beckeland. Baekeland discovered a type of printing paper that is particularly sensitive to light. Eastman bought Beckland’s invention for 750,000 US dollars (equivalent to the current 2.5 million US dollars). With funds on hand, Baekeland built a laboratory. And in 1907 invented phenolic plastic.
This new material has achieved great success. Products made of phenolic plastic include telephones, insulated cables, buttons, aircraft propellers, and billiard balls of excellent quality.
Parker Pen Company makes various fountain pens out of phenolic plastic. In order to prove the robustness of phenolic plastics, the company made a public demonstration to the public and dropped the pen from the high-rise buildings. “Time” magazine devoted a cover article to introduce the inventor of phenolic plastic and this material that can be “used thousands of times”
A few years later, DuPont’s laboratory also made another breakthrough accidentally: it made nylon, a product called artificial silk. In 1930, Wallace Carothers, a scientist working in the DuPont laboratory, immersed a heated glass rod in a long molecular organic compound and obtained a very elastic material. Although clothes made of early nylon melted under the high temperature of the iron, its inventor Carothers continued to conduct research. About eight years later, DuPont introduced nylon.
Nylon has been widely used in the field, parachutes and shoelaces are all made of nylon. But women are enthusiastic users of nylon. On May 15, 1940, American women sold out 5 million pairs of nylon stockings produced by DuPont. Nylon stockings are in short supply, and some businessmen have begun to pretend to be nylon stockings.
But the success story of nylon has a tragic ending: its inventor, Carothers, committed suicide by taking cyanide. Steven Finnichell, the author of the book “Plastic”, said: “I got the impression after reading Carothers’ diary: Carothers said that the materials he invented were used to produce women’s wear. Socks felt very frustrated. He was a scholar, which made him feel unbearable.” He felt that people would think that his main achievement was nothing more than inventing an “ordinary commercial product.”
While DuPont was fascinated by its products being widely loved by people. The British discovered many uses of plastic in the military field during the war. This discovery was made by accident. Scientists in the laboratory of Royal Chemical Industry Corporation of the United Kingdom were carrying out an experiment that had nothing to do with this, and found that there was a white waxy precipitate on the bottom of the test tube. After laboratory tests, it was found that this substance is an excellent insulating material. Its characteristics are different from glass, and radar waves can pass through it. Scientists call it polyethylene, and use it to build a house for radar stations to catch wind and rain, so that the radar can still catch enemy aircraft under rainy and dense fog.
Williamson of the Society for the History of Plastics said: “There are two factors driving the invention of plastics. One factor is the desire to make money, and the other factor is war.” However, it was the following decades that made plastic truly Finney. Chell called it the symbol of the “century of synthetic materials.” In the 1950s, plastic-made food containers, jugs, soap boxes and other household products appeared; in the 1960s, inflatable chairs appeared. In the 1970s, environmentalists pointed out that plastics cannot degrade by themselves. People’s enthusiasm for plastic products has declined.
However, in the 1980s and 1990s, due to the huge demand for plastics in the automobile and computer manufacturing industries, plastics further consolidated their position. It is impossible to deny this ubiquitous ordinary matter. Fifty years ago, the world could only produce tens of thousands of tons of plastic each year; today, the world’s annual plastic production exceeds 100 million tons. The annual plastic production in the United States exceeds the combined production of steel, aluminum and copper.
New plastics with novelty are still being discovered. Williamson of the Society for the History of Plastics said: “Designers and inventors will use plastics in the next millennium. No family material is like plastic that allows designers and inventors to complete their own products at a very low price. invent.