Timeline - Precursors

• 1839 - Natural Rubber - method of processing invented by Charles Goodyear

• 1843 - Vulcanite - Thomas Hancock

• 1843 - Gutta-Percha - William Montgomerie

• 1856 - Shellac - Alfred Critchlow, Samuel Peck

• 1856 - Bois Durci - Francois Charles Lepag

Timeline - Beginning of the Plastic Era with Semi Synthetics

• 1839 - Polystyrene or PS discovered - Eduard Simon

• 1862 - Parkesine - Alexander Parkes

• 1863 - Cellulose Nitrate or Celluloid - John Wesley Hyatt

• 1872 - Polyvinyl Chloride or PVC - first created by Eugen Baumann

• 1894 - Viscose Rayon - Charles Frederick Cross, Edward John Bevan

Timeline - Thermosetting Plastics and Thermoplastics

• 1908 - Cellophane ® - Jacques E. Brandenberger

• 1909 - First true plastic Phenol-Formaldehyde tradenamed Bakelite - Leo Hendrik Baekeland

• 1926 - Vinyl or PVC - Walter Semon invented a plasticized PVC.

• 1927 - Cellulose Acetate

• 1933 - Polyvinylidene chloride or Saran also called PVDC - accidentally discovered by Ralph Wiley, a Dow Chemical lab worker.

• 1935 - Low-density polyethylene or LDPE - Reginald Gibson and Eric Fawcett

• 1936 - Acrylic or Polymethyl Methacrylate

• 1937 - Polyurethanes tradenamed Igamid for plastics materials and Perlon for fibers. - Otto Bayer and co-workers discovered and patented the chemistry of polyurethanes

• 1938 - Polystyrene made practical

• 1938 - Polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE tradenamed Teflon - Roy Plunkett

• 1939 - Nylon and Neoprene considered a replacement for silk and a synthetic rubber respectively Wallace Hume Carothers