Synthetic plastic insulation

While during the year 1949 considerable publicity has been accorded the development of certain electrically conductive plastics, the fact still remains that the great majority or synthetic organic plastics are inherently electrical insulators, or dielectrics, with, to be sure, varying degrees of excellence in this regard. The reader of this review, however, if he is not already aware of the trend in recent years, will be surprised at the relatively small number of papers on plastics published during 1949 that have dealt directly with the electrical properties and electrical applications of these materialsdeal. But the successful use of practically any insulating material depends upon a great more than a knowledge of the electrical properties alone. It requires as wide a knowledge as possible of the mechanical and thermal properties, chemical stability, moisture resistance, problems of fabrication, economic factors, etc. The literature on plastics in general during the past year has contributed substantially to the fund of basic knowledge of these materials and is considered to be an important part of the literature on dielectrics.