The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1939-1949, 1943-07-22
! astics Meet
Special Needs
Scientist Doubts That They
VIII Replace Natures
Own Materials.

PITTSBURGH.-The Mellon Insti-
tute is making new, leatherlike
plastic to last 20 to Is years with
out stretching, despite being fexed
about 900 times an hour
The institute also has produced
new metal-like plastic to form discs,
which for Is years must wabble like
coins about to lose their spin, and
do this in boiling hot or icy cold
water, without wear, swelling or
shrinking.
Both are intended for special jobs
In meters. Both mislead the J alb
Lie, as have their near-miracle pred
ecessors in plastics,- in that they
seem to point to a near future when
anything man wants in materials
his house, his car, his plane-can
be tailor-made to fit his dreams.
This might be done, but it probably
never will be.
The plastics age, as seen here at
Mellon Institute, will be full of sci
entific miracles-but plastics will not
sub stitute for metals, wood, bricks
and stone or for jewels, silks and
clothing. They will supplement all
those and many more. They will be
used to do things natures materials
cannot do so well.
The situation was explained by
DR.. Reginald L. Wakeman, indus
trial fellow. His fellowship is sup
ported by the Pittsburgh Equitable
Meter company. T.. @.@ #
May Be Too Expensive.
Usually plastics will be too ex-
pensive to substitute. Cotton paw
Ing blocks, so called because they
are a plastic with base obtained
from cotton, are an example. Some
Of the publicity about streets paved
with cotton blocks omitted the cost
around 40 cents pound.
When the United States. entered
the war the total American plastic
production was less than one-haf
of per cent Of the metals we used.
In volume the plastics, lighter in
weight, equaled some 4 per cent Of
the metals. ~
A renaissance Of color is one
definite change to come with plas-
tics. They can be.made in all so1-,
ors. The colors are fast, with un-
usual brilliance and sheen. Neither
dirt, corrosion nor wear dims them
permanently. These colored plas-
tics clean easily, usually with wa
ter.
There Is no end in sight Of the
variety of plastics to be made. There
Is also an equally endless possibility
Of blending plastics with other ma
teriaIs, or bonding plastics and 9TH
er materials together permanently.
Already there is wallpaper made
apparently of wood. A resin, which
is a plastic, does this. Paper is
impregnated with the resin. On top
is laid thin layer of wood, one.
sixty-fourth Of an inch thick.
Use In Planes. r..
Plywood planes are possible only
because of the plastics which ce-
ment the layers of wood. Virtually
all the new plywood advances de-
pend on plastics The so-called plas-
tic planes contain, as binder, about
10 to IA per cent of plastics.
Few persons think of nylon as
plastic. Yet it is one of the fore
most and one of the most versatile.
The versatility of plastics is all
but incredible. Take Nparacouma-
rome. It is a. useful floor binder
and also an ingredient in chewing
gum. -, g.. -.
Auto safety glass is made with
plastic. Cashew nuts furnish plas-
tic to make high-quality brake lin
. ings. The casein Of milk makes an
imitation wool, and that also is a
plastic. In industry the plastics are
more important than in household
and personal uses. They furnish
the rubberized and concrete paints,
many Of the 1acquers, all sorts Of
adhesives. Wherever there is an
Industrial job in which metal is fail
ing, the chemist can look over his
field Of plastics, decide what kind
and arrangement of molecules will
form special material for the job,
and then, if he has time enough,
make the article.