There is some discussion on the early use of plastics in the manufacture of
pharmaceutical bottles in George Griffenhagen and Mary Bogard's "History of
Drug Containers and Their Labels", American Inst. of the History of
Pharmacy, Madison, Wisconsin, 1999, pp. 46-47, which expands on the
information that has already been posted. According to Griffenhagen and
Bogard, plastic screw caps were introduced in 1922 and "by the early 1930s
closures for machine-made prescription bottles consisted of molded plastic
screw caps." Plastics had some hurdles to pass before they were fully
accepted for prescription bottles. Remington's "Practice of Pharmacy," a
widely-used textbook for pharmacy students in 1961, reported the concern
that plastic containers reacted with certain drugs when in liquid form,
however, they pointed out that these problems were being resolved.
Griffenhagen and Bogard also pointed out that research on plastic vials for
shipping serum to the military during World War II led to the commercial use
of polystyrene vials in the 1950s. As pointed out by others on the List,
Bakelite was developed by the Belgian-born American chemist, L. H.
Baekeland, in 1909, who was searching for a shellac substitute. The
original product was a synthetic polymer of phenol and formaldehyde.
However, the trade name was owned by Union Carbide and Carbon Corp., and
came to be used for "all of their plastics, except the vinyl polymer."
(Reference: Carl R. Noller, "Chemistry of Organic Compounds", W. B. Saunders
Company, Phila. and London, 1951, p. 497) It may also be of interest that
Bakelite was used in the manufacture of a variety of molded plastic
products, including electric insulators, phonograph records, buttons, pipe
stems, etc., and was sometimes mixed with wood fiber, paper, or asbestos to
modulate its tensile strength. (Reference: The Universal World Reference
Encyclopedia, 1964, Vol. 2, p. 502
Allen Vegotsky
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert L. Schuyler <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, February 05, 2002 5:14 PM
Subject: Bottle/Plastic Questions
>Can any of you help with these questions and/or supply references:
>
>(1)When were plastic caps (tops) introduced for bottles in the
> 20th century?
>
>(2) When did such caps become common - so it is likely they would
> be encountered in the archaeological record?
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bob Schuyler
>Robert L. Schuyler
>University of Pennsylvania Museum
>33rd & Spruce Streets
>Philadelphia, PA l9l04-6324
>
>Tel: (215) 898-6965
>Fax: (215) 898-0657
>[log in to unmask]
|