This document discusses the history and development of plastics from 1770 to 1964. It describes how early plastics like horn, rubber, and celluloid were used to make tools, household goods, and other objects starting in the late 18th century. These early plastics were often formulated to imitate other natural materials like wood, bone, and ivory. The use of plastics grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with new materials like ebonite and urea-formaldehyde. By the 1930s, plastics like urea-formaldehyde cups no longer tried to mimic other materials and were simply appreciated for being plastic.

1. THE ADVENT OF PLASTICS 1770-1964
Sergio Antonio Salvi
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS

2. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
Since 1770, Fratelli
Guzzini. Horn of ox
working
Before the advent of
“synthetic” polymers,
“artificial” plastics were
those who could be
transformed
“plastically”, by means
of both mechanical
and thermal action;
sometimes they could
be little “modified” with
chemical substances
(the nature of polymers
was unknown)
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

4. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
Since 1770, Fratelli
Guzzini. Horn of ox
cooking tools
These objects
production already
needed of simple
moulds
Horn of ox, as many
other “natural”
materials, is
chemically composed
by proteins who are
kinds of polymers
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

6. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
1851, London Great
Exhibition, Crystal
Palace
A raft, some types of
buoys and other
articles, all made in
rubber (prod. Good
Year); natural rubber
was –and still is–
derived by a substance
generated by a plant,
then treated by means
of the process of
“vulcanization” (a type
of curing) that
transforms it into an
elastomeric material
1/2
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

7. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
1851, London Great
Exhibition, Crystal
Palace
Rubber is now
chemically known as
poly isoprene (cis-
isomer)
2/2
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

8. DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi
THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
1880-1890, Gutta
Percha catalog page
This company
produced many
different household
objects, even furniture,
made moulding a
particular kind of
plastic who was
derived by a plant, as
well as natural rubber,
whose molecular
structure is very similar

9. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
1880-1890, Toronto,
fountain pen made in
“Ebanite”, with its
case (prod. Swan)
“Ebanite” is a trade
name for a type of
material derived from
natural rubber; poly
isoprene becomes
rigid when the
vulcanization process
is over boosted; the
term “ebanite” was
chosen to evocate the
similitude to the widely
used wood at that time
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

11. DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi
THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
End of IXX cent.,
France and United
Kingdom. Dropper
for medical use, pill
box whose closure is
made by means of
“insert moulding”
and a neck chain, all
made of Ebanite
Notice that the insert is
a French coin

13. DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi
THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
End of IXX cent.,
prob. France. Rattles
for newborns in
thermoformed foil
(balls), coupled by
means of adhesive,
and extruded hot
post-curved sticks
(handles), all made of
celluloid
This material is an
“artificial” one; derived
from wood cellulose, is
the precursor of those
resins known as
“acetalic”

15. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
End of IXX cent.,
prob. France.
Feminine hair comb,
hairpin box and
handbag, all made of
celluloid
Both the comb
material and the box
one were compounded
to simulate “natural”
substances (tortoise
shell and briar root
respectively)
1/2
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

16. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
End of IXX cent.,
prob. France.
Feminine hair comb,
hairpin box and
handbag, all made of
celluloid
The plastics incoming
has been
characterized by this
approach: plastics
were poor materials,
cheap, so that the
simulation of other
materials was the
solution…
2/2
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

18. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
End of IXX cent.
Hand fan made of
celluloid in which the
material evocates the
tortoise shell
This types of textures,
at that time exploited
to imitate natural
materials, in plastics
are got by means of
plants in which two or
more differently
pigmented polymers
are imperfectly mixed
together
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

20. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
1901, Paris. Hand
propeller fan (hand
operated) made of
celluloid with inlay of
silver and mother
pearl (prod. Zephir)
This product –higly
artisanal– seems to
have been created to
make the observer
thinking of a material
like bone or ivory
1/2
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

21. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
1901, Paris. Hand
propeller fan (hand
operated) made of
celluloid with inlay of
silver and mother
pearl (prod. Zephir)
In the first decade of
the IXX century this
“artisanal” way to
conceive the industrial
product was debated
in the Deutsche
Werkbund, who
counteracted the “art
noveau” approach
2/2
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

22. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
1910, Germany. Baby
doll partially
produced in celluloid
(prod. Rheinische
Gummi und Celluloid
Fabrik)
The body was
artisanally
manufactured working
leather of goat kid; this
was an innovation for
the time because baby
dolls were made of
rag, wood and
porcelain, in order of
price
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

23. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
1919, Scotland.
Fireplace clock made
in wood “ebony
colour”, with inlay of
casein to imitate
ivory (des.
Mackintosh)
This product confirms
how the society of the
firsts decades of the
century was anchored
to the past: everything
could be made of
every material but
traditional…
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

24. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
1927, United
Kingdom. Page of the
catalogue Bandalasta
Kitchenware made of
urea-formaldehyde
resin, a material
nowadays disappeared
in this application,
instead now in use for
special ones like for
“composite” materials
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

25. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
1927-1932, United
Kingdom. Pic nic
Bandalasta cup with
its saucer (prod.
Streetly
Manufacturing for
Brookes and Adams)
Made of urea-
formaldehyde resin, it
is amazing for the
material effect still
adopted for this type of
products; the surface
gloss is due to the
“amorphous” state of
the material nowadays
got by means of
polymers like MF,
PMMA, SAN etc.
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

27. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
1927-1932, United
Kingdom. Bandalasta
urea-formaldehyde
pic nic cups with
their case (prod.
Streetly
Manufacturing for
Brookes and Adams)
Cups whose material
was compounded
probably to imitate
ivory or bone
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

29. THE ADVENT OF
PLASTICS
1770-1964:
Thirties, United
Kingdom. Coloured
urea-formaldehyde
cups (prod. Streetly
Manufacturing for
Stadium)
These cups, whose
resin trade name is
“Beatl”, for the first
time simply appear as
if they were made of
plastic, without any
need to resort to
imitation; this is a great
step towards the
plastics appreciation
DESIGN FOR
PLASTICS
Sergio Antonio Salvi

31. OMITTED