GLASS FROM GAS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 26, 9 March 1942, Page 6

GLASS FROM GAS

NOW MADE IN BRITAIN SUBMARINE PERISCOPES

People in Britain are looking at the war through eyeglasses made from transparent plastics, the material derived from carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and so on, familiar to the public as ashtrays,, hand-torches, wireless sets and electric switchboards. This substitute is not being used because there is any shortage of glass but because it is quicker to mould the plastic material than to grind dow r n glass to the required measurements of the lenses; and speed, of course, is essential in Britain's war-time industries. The new plastic lenses are also being fitted for binoculars, submarine periscopes and optical parts in tanks. Optics is only one of the new uses to which plastics are being applied in Britain since the war began. Plastic gear-wheels and bearings are appearing in the factories; fire-spotters are wearing plastic helmets, and IOFt dinghies without a single nail are being produced by moulding plywood impregnated, with resin. They are stronger and lighter than the old type, completely Avaterproof and smoothe skinned. When peace returns Britons may even have plastic houses. The Scottish Special Housing Association has asked the British Government to erect an experimental house in which the structural framing, Avails, floors, window frames, dors, roofsheeting and so. on arc all made of plastics.