“1947 Plastics industry makes the transition from military applications to peacetime futuristic designs.” The first 19 minutes or so are in black & white, the last 5 minutes in technicolor.
Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a transparent thermoplastic, often used as a lightweight or shatter-resistant alternative to glass. It is sometimes called acrylic glass. Chemically, it is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate. The material was developed in 1928 in various laboratories and was first brought to market in 1933 by the Rohm and Haas Company, under the trademark Plexiglas. It has since been sold under many different names, including Lucite and Perspex.
Public domain film from the Library of Congress Prelinger Archives slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.
Plexiglas: “Looking Ahead Through Plexiglas” 1947 Rohm & Haas Poly(methyl methacrylate) PMMA.
thumbnail courtesy of youtube.com
