BY ACCIDENT
DISCOVERY OF PLASTICS. Everyone knows how very often a little thing leads on to a big one, and how sometimes an accident is the beginning of a new industry. It was a trifling thing and an accidental occurrence which led to plastics. It is said that 30 years ago a chemist packed up his laboratory and went off for a holiday. When he returned he noticed that a saucer of milk he had left on the step still there —or. rather, the saucer was there with a little dried up milk in it. He had left the milk for the cat, and the cat had chosen to disdain it. Picking up the saucer, he put it on his bench, and by accident dropped a little formaldehyde on it. That was all. But the chemist was observant, and he noticed that the dried milk turned into a hard substance —very hard, and that its whole nature seemed changed. He experimented, and the result was the great industry today which makes plastics largely out of surplus milk. Returns show that over 50,000 tons of skim milk are used for the making of casein. The resulting plastic has astonishing properties. Indeed, a piece of casein only one-twelfth of an inch thick will resist an electric charge of 12.000 volts. About £15,000.000 are invested in plastics at this hour.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 May 1940, Page 6
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227BY ACCIDENT Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 May 1940, Page 6
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