DISCOVERY BY ACCIDENT

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23053, 22 June 1940, Page 15

DISCOVERY BY ACCIDENT

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 was still there-—or, rather, the saucer was there with a little dried tip 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. 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 to-day Which makes plastics largely out of surplus milk. Returns show that 50,000 tons of skim milk are used for the rhaking 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 is invested in plastics at this hour.