Interesting Tidbits

• One of the first developments of plastics was as a replacement to ivory billard balls, due to the dwindling supply of ivory. As far back as 1866, elephants were being slaughtered at an alarming rate to keep up with the demand for ivory billiard balls, billards having become America's favorite pastime. John Wesly Hyatt, invented the replacement, one of the first plastics, called celluloid, which was used in movies for a short time.

• An important plastics inventor was Charles Macintosh, who developed a plastic coated waterproof fabric in the mid 19th century and gaves is name to the coat. In Britian, people still refer to thier raincoats as "Macs".

• The inventor of the first synthetic plastic, Bakelite, was Leo Bakeland. Time magazine called him "The King of Plastics" and put him on the cover of its September 22, 1924 issue. It dubbed Bakelite "The material with a thousand uses".

• In the 1940's a vinyl based material commonly known as Saran Wrap started as a furniture protector. During World War II defense contractors found more important uses for the plastic. Saran film "sprayed" on plane being shipped overseas protected them from the salty sea spray, which meant that the process of disassembling, greasing at the point of origin and then cleaning and reassembling at the destination were avoided. After the war there was an oversupply of the film and resulted in it being marketed as the self cling food wrap we find in kitchens everywhere.

• Also during the 1940's started the craze for nylon stockings, which were rumored to be so strong that only an acetylene torch could but a run in them. Manufactures claimed that the nylon stockings were as "strong as steel" and lead many women to believe that the hose were impervious to razor blades and nail files. Nylons were so popular that women stampeded to get even one pair.

• One of the most well known plastics of today, GORE-TEX, which is sued to make extremely warm jackets and shoes, is used extensively in vascular grafts and patches for heart defects and hernias.