CHAPTER 8
Plastics
YVONNE SHASHOUA
Department of Conservation, National Museum of Denmark, PO Box 260 Brede,
DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
1 PLASTICS IN HERITAGE COLLECTIONS
Synthetic plastic materials have had a significant influence on industrial,
domestic and cultural aspects of modern life throughout the 20th, and into the
21st, centuries. They represent advances in technology, illustrated by the dra-
matic growth in information storage media available in the last 20 years,
development of space suits, credit cards and food containers that can be taken
directly from the freezer to microwave oven and then to dinner table without
failing. It is interesting that until the 1940s, it was not possible to drink hot
coffee from a plastic cup without softening it – an activity we consider com-
monplace today.
The development of plastics also reflects economic history. Restrictions on
imported latex, wool, silk and other natural materials to Europe during the
Second World War resulted in the rapid development of alternative synthetic
plastics. Table 1 shows that between 1935 and 1945, many new polymers were
introduced including polyethylene, polyamides, poly(methyl methacrylate),
polyurethanes, poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC), silicones, epoxies, polytetrafluoro-
ethylene and polystyrene. Polyethylene was incorporated into radar systems
while PVC replaced the limited stocks of natural rubber as cable insulation.
Public attitudes towards plastics have also changed. When the first man-made
plastics formulation, cellulose nitrate, was exhibited at the Great International
Exhibition in England in 1862 by Alexander Parkes, it was designed to imitate
luxury materials, such as tortoiseshell and ivory, which were, at that time, in
increasing demand and diminishing supply. However, this image of plastics
as highly-valued luxury goods faded when the colourful, post-Second World