Synthetic plastic insulation

The 1946 Tariff Commission report shows a total production of synthetic resins for that year of approximately one billion pounds, exclusive of cellulosics and synthetic rubber. There was a time when the electrical industry constituted a major outlet for synthetic plastics and provided strong stimulus for the development of new plastics. In fact, much of the drive for the development of polystyrene in this country came from the fact that this material was an outstanding dielectric substance which should demand considerable use in the electrical industry. It is difficult to tell what fraction of current polystyrene production finds its ultimate use in the electrical industry, but the fraction must be small. A similar case prevails with polythene, whose large scale development arose from an urgent war-time requirement for a dielectric material. However, it is safe to predict that the non-electrical peace-time uses for polythene are already or will dwarf any dielectric applications. While these two important plastics, polythene and polystyrene, were both stimulated primarily on the basis of electrical properties, yet the character of the plastics industry has so changed in magnitude and outlook that it will probably be difficult in the future to encourage plastics developments solely on the basis of their possible use in the electrical field. Protective coatings, synthetic fibers, molding powders and structural materials are such large volume ventures as to attract the major research effort. If the hew materials developed for these fields happen also to possess good electrical properties, so much the better.