The Plastics Division of Imperial Chemical Industries Limited was formed in 1936 at a time when plastics, as then understood, were still a marginal activity of the organic chemical industry. The purpose of the Division was then, as it is to-day, to exploit commercially the chemical findings of the rest of the Company and those of the Division itself in the field of synthetic high polymers. In the Cantor Lectures in 1951 I outlined the history of the plastics industry (Swallow 1951); it is sufficient here to say that the technical requirements of the last war led to an enormous increase in the volume of the industry, so that to-day it is a major part of the chemical industry in all industrialized countries. For example, in the U. S. A., the growth is at the moment at the rate of 12½% per annum, which is greater than in any other section of industry in that country. Even so, official figures do not tell the story of the continuous diversification and improvement which have been among the main causes of this expansion, nor of the introduction of the new polymers which will provide the basis for future growth. Furthermore, the distinction between plastics and synthetic rubbers is now very difficult to make since both are high polymers, and whether a high polymer is a ‘plastic’ or a ‘rubber’ is determined largely by the fact that room temperature is around 300° K.
Light and the Development of the Organic Chemical Industry since Antiquity
