Skeletons The Frame of Life Jan Zalasiewicz Full Chapter PDF
Skeletons The Frame of Life Jan Zalasiewicz Full Chapter PDF
Skeletons The Frame of Life Jan Zalasiewicz Full Chapter PDF
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S K E L ET O N S
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JAN ZALASIEWICZ
AND MARK WILLIAMS
SKELETONS
the frame of life
1
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3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
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© Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams 2018
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
First Edition published in 2018
Impression: 1
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a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
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You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2017953468
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Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
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To Adrian Rushton
nonpareil colleague and scholar of ancient skeletons
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
Prologue xi
Geological Timeline xiv
1. Skeletons Appear 1
5. Mega-skeletons 127
6. Mini-skeletons 149
Notes 263
References 267
Figure Credits 273
Index 275
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
T his book arose, as did the previous ones we have written, out of a
moment of improvisation, which then somehow had to be carried
forwards to some kind of conclusion. The idea was to take skeletons, the
(mostly) hidden framework of biological life, which, in ancient form, has also
provided the framework—in somewhat more exposed and visible form—of
much of our professional lives, and make sense of them in the way that
they have underpinned the development of complex life on Earth.
In making this story take shape, we are deeply grateful for the unceas-
ing support and encouragement of Latha Menon and others at Oxford
University Press. Latha has an unrivalled ability to see where a narrative
line might be heading for the rocks, and to gently steer it into more
productive waters, while Jenny Nugee and her colleagues have been
cheerfully patient with our perilously close encounters with deadlines,
and marvellously efficient in compiling the finished product.
As to the subject matter, the content here has been influenced by all
the people who have influenced us as we have come to grips with fossil
skeletons, old and new, in our studies and in our working lives. That is an
awfully long list, but includes colleagues such as David and Derek Siveter,
Richard Fortey, and the late and much missed figures of Dick Aldridge
and Barrie Rickards. We dedicate this book to Adrian Rushton, who has
influenced these pages both directly and indirectly; the range of fossil
skeletons he has covered, expertly, has not been rivalled since the days of
the great Victorian-era polymaths, and the amount of help and support
he has given to others through his career has been immeasurable. We
also thank the following for the images that we have used in this book
and for advice on images: John Ahlgren, Peiyun Cong, Iván Cortijo, Jason
Dunlop, Dennis Hansen, Tom Harvey, Soraya Marali, David Martill,
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Giles Miller, Chris Nedza, Mark Purnell, Adrian Rushton, Paul Selden,
David Siveter, Derek Siveter, Vincent Perrier, Ulrich Salzmann, Bernd
Schöne, Ian Wilkinson, Xianguang Hou, Xiaoya Ma, and Jeremy Young.
We thank our families, too—Asih, Kasia, Milana, Mat—for the support
and inspiration that they continually give—and infinite patience, too, as
we steal time to write this book. And our parents too, Doreen, Les, Irena,
and Feliks, who gave us the inspiration to be inquisitive.
x
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PROLOGUE
W hat links the tumbleweed that has invaded the North American
plains, the single outstretched canine tooth of a narwhal, the
fourth finger of a pterosaur, the carapace of a beetle, and the ancient
submarine mountains, reaching 5 kilometres tall, at the top of which the
coral islands of tropical oceans just emerge at the ocean surface? These are
all forms of skeleton, produced by living organisms in an extraordinary
late flurry of evolution on a planet that was already easing into middle age.
Imagine, then, a world where skeletons had not evolved. We would
not see birds flying through the air to perch on a tree branch, or a cat
leaping high onto a garden wall (perhaps to try to catch one of those
birds), or a crab scuttling on a beach, or a child running through a
playground. We might be forgiven for thinking that a world without
such familiar things would be a bizarre place indeed. But that is just how
it was for most of the history of life on Earth.
The Earth’s surface now holds a vast array of skeletons, from micro-
scopic to gigantic. Some piles of skeletons, like the Great Barrier Reef of
Australia, are so large that they can be seen from space, while others,
visible only through powerful microscopes, show exquisite preservation
of minute structures from hundreds of millions of years ago. Specimens
of the most spectacular skeletons have been avidly sought by humans,
even in antiquity, and their power to awe remains undimmed. Looking
from another perspective, skeletons en masse, assembled down the years
and stored within layers of rock, have been crucial in controlling some of
the Earth’s most important chemical cycles, and in maintaining a habit-
able climate on our planet.
In this book we look at skeletons from many angles, and encompass
all of those mineral frameworks that have allowed life to engineer the
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xii
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xiii
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PERIODS
Time range of different types
PHANEROZOIC EONS
ERAS
of organisms
0
CENOZOIC
MESOZOIC
PALAEOZOIC
‘CAMBRIAN
EXPLOSION’
Burrowing animals
Complex mineralized skeletons
1
PROTEROZOIC
2
ARCHAEAN
3
Acritarchs
Stromatolites
4
Life ?
Billion years ago
HADEAN
Geological timeline.
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PERIODS
PERIODS
EONS
CENOZOIC ERAS
QUATERNARY
EPOCHS Technological
0 0 HOLOCENE skeletons
PLEISTOCENE appear
TERT- PLIOCENE
IARY
10 Beginning of
hominin
100 CRETA- bipedalism
CEOUS MIOCENE
MESOZOIC
20
JURA-
SSIC
200
Abundant calcifying plankton in the oceans
Vertebrate flight
TRIA- OLIGO-
30
SSIC CENE
TERTIARY
PERM-
IAN
300 40
CARBON-
IFEROUS Beginning of
EOCENE
evolution of
whale skeleton
DEVON- 50
PHANEROZOIC
First known
PALAEOZOIC
400 IAN
bat skeleton
SILUR-
Invertebrate flight
IAN
60 PALEO-
Skeletons on land
ORDO- CENE
VICIAN Extinction of
non-avian
CRETACEOUS
500
dinosaurs
Million years ago
CAMB-
RIAN 70
Million years
Diverse complex
skeletons in the sea
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SKELETONS APPEAR
assess how long ago this all was. Because we have leant to read the
atomic clocks built into some specific minerals that can be found in
rocks, we know that the Earth is 4.54 billion years old, that traces of
microbial life can be found in rocks at least 3.8 billion years old and
perhaps even as old as 4.1 billion years—and that the skeleton-packed
Cambrian Period began just 541 million years ago. Life has existed
therefore for at least fourth-fifths—and perhaps nine-tenths—of our
planet’s duration. Yet thoroughgoing, familiar, skeletons, and the kind
of life that they literally supported, occupy just the past 12% of Earth
time. Skeletons may, on a planetary timescale, be a latecomer innov-
ation, but they changed the world fundamentally. Indeed, they define
the present geological eon, the Phanerozoic, of which the Cambrian is
the lowest rung.
The problem becomes yet more curious in that we now know too, that
for almost all of the time that life has existed on Earth, microbes could
indeed produce skeletons of a kind that were either too tiny for Darwin
to see or too crude for him to recognize. We know, too, from exceedingly
rare fossils, that soft-bodied multicellular organisms have existed on
Earth for at least 1.2 billion years, and that a distinctive array of mysteri-
ous, multicellular but seemingly skeleton-less organisms, the ‘Ediacara
biota’, became quite widespread in the oceans about 60 million years
before the start of the Cambrian Period.
Whatever the skeleton factor is, it is clearly pretty special—and when
little Cloudina appeared on Earth about 550 million years ago, with its
brand new shell, it was the start of a revolution on the planet.
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night school and did manual work at the US National Museum during
the day. An enthusiasm for fossils got him a job as a preparator in the
palaeontology laboratory at the museum, from which opportunity his
career blossomed. A man with a wide-angle view of the Earth and its
place in the cosmos, he is best known for deciphering, in memorable
terms, the larger structure of Precambrian history—he was the one to
coin the term ‘Hadean Eon’ to mark the earliest, most mysterious
part of Precambrian time, for instance. So it is fitting that one of the
earliest known truly skeleton-bearing organisms on Earth is named
after him (Figure 1).
Cloudina (of the family Cloudinidae, just to add further lustre to the
great man) is hugely important, but it is not at all the most spectacular
of fossils. It is basically a rather irregular curved tube, up to a few
millimetres wide and a few centimetres long. The tube has a distinctive
structure, being a set of long cones, stacked one inside the other; the
first cone is closed at its narrow end, and all the others are open.1 And
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earthworm in garden soil will show (Darwin, who made a detailed study
of earthworms, had as good an insight into these processes as anyone).
That kind of advance was only possible with the evolution of a more
sophisticated and robust array of structural tissues, in the body plan of a
bilaterian animal. Bilaterians include most major animal groups, and the
appearance of bioturbated strata 550 million years ago is evidence of
when this major step within evolution took place.
This truly was a major step, perhaps taken in response to the invention
of predation. For though jellyfish and sea anemones may possess muscle
tissues, and nerves, and a simple gut, at the embryonic stage they only
possess two germ layers of tissue and this limits the range of structures
they can produce. These animals are called diploblasts, and some of them,
like corals, nevertheless went on to build the greatest skeletal structures
that have ever functioned. Most animals, from worms to humans, are
triploblasts, in that the embryo possesses three layers of germ cells. This
evolutionary step was of crucial importance for skeletons, because it
allowed triploblasts to make a much wider range of structures, including
organs. But for our story it enabled the development of the internal bony
skeleton of humans, which is derived from the mesoderm germ layer,
and the mineralized exoskeleton of a trilobite, which is derived from the
outer layer, the ectoderm. And crucially, it produces the unmineralized
but nevertheless tough outer cuticle of a worm, of the kind of organism
that first began tunnelling into the Precambrian sea floor.
This revolution marks our eon, for it heralded the transformation of
the biosphere shortly to follow, and, as one result, made hard skeletons a
crucial part of the biological toolkit for survival. The body of bilaterians
was a major factor—perhaps the major factor—in kick-starting this
biospheric revolution, and as regards our narrative it provided the stron-
gest of selective pressures to encourage development of the solid skeletons
that soon followed. It was an innovation fit to mark an eon.
The formal boundary for the beginning of the Phanerozoic Eon—the one
we still live in—was chosen for a particularly distinctive kind of early burrow,
which represented a kind of three-dimensional corkscrewing movement,
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and named Treptichnus pedum, first seen to appear within sea floor sediments
that now comprise strata in Newfoundland, Canada. These burrows are
similar to burrows made today by a priapulid worm, as it corkscrews
through sea floor sediment in search of prey. This new trick of muscular
movement was thought to represent the most consistently traceable
level for the eon’s beginning and, although it is has proved a little problematic
in practice,3 that is the boundary which, for now, remains in place.
Any animal then possessing the ability to crawl, slither, or burrow
could exploit the food reserves in organic-rich mud, simply by eating that
mud, while microbial mats could be treated as food too. At that delicate
point, the stage was set for further developments. That muscularity, for
many of those early forms, began to be directed towards the hunting and
eating of other organisms, particularly if they were just a little smaller
and a little less mobile. The evolutionary arms race, for so long slow and
quiescent—as far as we can decipher—had begun in earnest. Cloudina was
the first defensive riposte that we know of in this arms race.
The evidence is clear in the fossils themselves. In well-preserved
assemblages of these skeletons, up to one-fifth of Cloudina tubes may
show evidence of attack, in the form of neat circular puncture holes in
the shells.4 Some of the holes are incomplete—they did not penetrate all
the shell, and others were unsuccessful, for the Cloudina individual lived to
be punctured again later in its life—sometimes several times. The shell
therefore undoubtedly formed a protective armour that increased the
chances of survival to the skeleton-maker.
Even at this early stage in the arms race, though, the ecology was not
simple. There seems to have been just one predator in the examples studied,
for there appears to be just one type of puncture mark. But there was
another potential target. Cloudina assemblages may be accompanied in
places by another, similar tubular shell, Sinotubulites (which differs by having
a two-layered tube that is open at both ends5). Where these coexist and there
is evidence of predation, it is Cloudina that is the victim, while Sinotubulites
shells have—in the specimens examined to date, at least—shown no signs
of attack. The early predator seems to have been selective.
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An Eruption of Skeletons
‘Darwin’s dilemma’ marked the sudden change from ancient barren strata,
seemingly devoid of signs of life, to more recent strata abounding in the
remains of shells and carapaces, of which Cloudina and Sinotubulites were just
the advance guard. Charles Darwin saw this absence as a major problem in his
attempts to explain how life evolved on Earth—and would have been even
more puzzled had he been aware that the Earth nurtured skeleton-bearing life
for a mere one-eighth of its history. He would have expected to see the
fossilized remains of more primitive ancestors, extending back into the
mists of time. To him complex, skeletonized, fossilizable life seemed to
come in abruptly at the ‘explosion’ of fossils at the beginning of the Cambrian.
However, after more than a century of painstaking study of the strata,
we can now ask more detailed questions about this Cambrian explosion
of life. Quite how sudden was it, and how closely tied to the acquisition
of skeletons? Was the explosion essentially one of easily fossilizable
skeletons that followed a long, cryptic history of complex, soft, multi-
cellular organisms? Did skeleton-making arise just once, or did it appear
independently in different evolutionary lines of organisms? Was the
ability to make skeletons triggered by the development of sufficiently
sophisticated biology, or was it caused by some kind of environmental
changes, to make skeleton-making easier? Or by both? There is a plethora
of questions here, based around the complex relation of skeletons
to biology and to planetary conditions. We can unpick them—some of
them, at least—one by one.
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The fossil record is much better known than it was in Darwin’s time
(Darwin himself was rather deprecating about the use of fossils in
providing evidence for what he called ‘descent with modification’ and
what we now know as biological evolution; in The Origin of Species, he
placed more weight on evidence from animal breeding). Crucially, the
fossil record has now been numerically calibrated—that is, it has been
dated in numbers of millions of years, using radiometric ages. Amid the
skeleton-bearing strata, there are, here and there, layers of volcanic ash.
These commonly contain crystals of minerals such as zircon (zirconium
silicate) and monazite (a phosphate of rare earth elements) which, when
they grew, included significant amounts of the radioactive element uran-
ium. Radioactive decay of the uranium to lead within the crystal is
the basis of a highly effective atomic clock, which in good circumstances
can establish the age of a stratum to the nearest million years or so—even
at a distance of half a billion years.
Cloudina, Sinotubulites, and others—those first true shell-formers—
followed shortly after the very first burrows, and were themselves
followed soon after, in geological terms, by the distinctive three-
dimensional fossilized burrows of Treptichnus pedum, chosen to mark the
official beginning of the Cambrian Period and simultaneously the Phan-
erozoic Eon (and simultaneously too, of the intermediate category of
time division, the Palaeozoic Era that ended catastrophically 252 million
years ago). Strata laid down over the next few million years of the
Cambrian Period include the next stage in skeleton formation. These
are the ‘small shelly fossils’—a variety of minute button-like, or tube-
like, or shell-like fossils, which typically range from fractions of a milli-
metre to a few millimetres in size. These are disarticulated remains, like a
broken-up suite of chainmail armour. And as a result, it is often difficult
to know what animal they belonged to. Many of these animals remain
puzzling, but some have, by careful study, been related to different types
of organism. The Cambrian explosion was gathering pace.
Then, a little more than 520 million years ago, there appeared the
signature fossil of the Cambrian, the trilobite (Figure 2). To many people,
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The skeleton factor, therefore, clearly played a large part from very
near the beginning of complex multicellular life. Both the ‘normal’ fossil
record and exceptional localities like those of the Burgess and Chengjiang
mudrocks have given us powerful insights into how skeleton-bearing
animals were an integral part, and not a bit player, amid the pattern of life
in Cambrian times.
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would have been more widespread in Precambrian seas. This has led to
much searching of late Precambrian strata for some ‘meiofauana
Lagerstätte’ that might yield exceptionally preserved examples of such
minuscule, delicate fossils—and hence give proof to this tempting theory.
Alas, the Precambrian has so far stubbornly refused to yield any such
fossils. It has yielded other fossils that one would have thought yet
more delicate and unfossilizable, such as fossilized embryos of some
still unknown organism in 570-million-year-old rocks in China. And,
conversely, the palaeontologists Tom Harvey and Nick Butterfield have
recently found a beautifully preserved fossil of an undoubted loriciferan,
with its delicate skeleton-cone containing a tangled mass of its (soft) arms
too, in Cambrian strata from Canada.15 Hence, such miniaturized ani-
mals can indeed be fossilized, albeit rarely.
It seems likely, then, that the Cambrian explosion (or eruption) is
exactly what the name conveys—a phenomenon where the major
groups of animals arose, and developed their skeletons (whether full
size or miniature), essentially in Cambrian times.
It is time to look at that variety of skeletons more closely.
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I n the summer of 1945, in the part of the New Mexico desert called the
‘Jornado del Muerto’– which translates as the ‘journey of the dead
man’—the world’s first atomic bomb exploded. Some time later, giant
human-eating ants climbed out of the desert to terrorize the inhabitants
of Los Angeles, building a colossal underground nest in the city’s drains
and sewers. This, at least, is what happened in the 1954 sci-fi classic
Hollywood movie Them. The idea of giant arthropods, mutating after
scientists have tinkered with their biology, did not stop with the ants. In
1955, a 30-metre-high tarantula rampaged out of the Arizona desert in
the film titled, predictably enough, Tarantula! It had been re-engineered by
scientists whose inventiveness also stretched to giant rabbits and enor-
mous guinea pigs. After consuming a few cows and people, this spec-
tacular arachnid was finally itself consumed, by fire, napalmed by the US
Air Force. The giant arthropod theme has been reprised: the Starship
Troopers battled an endless supply of oversized insects from outer space,
while just to turn the tables, in the film Aliens Sigourney Weaver dons an
artificial exoskeleton to do final battle with the monstrous queen Alien.
Is the possibility of gigantic man-eating bugs a realistic proposition?
Looking back at the truly huge organisms that once roamed—and indeed
still roam—our planet, did any of them have their skeletons on the
outside? The answer, luckily, is ‘no’. Because, 30 metres of angry Tarantula
with its giant pincer-like claws would likely have made short work of any
animal with an internal skeleton, including elephants, mammoths, and
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Figure 7. The skeleton of the blue whale exhibited in the main gallery of the
Natural History Museum in London.
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‘tentacle to jaw’ combat. The spider crab and colossal squid may be big, if
the size of their limbs is also included, though their bodies must always
remain quite small. Possessing an exoskeleton precludes growing a large
body––at least from the point of view of a terrestrial vertebrate. But the
huge number of animals that have adopted this style of skeleton, or have
secondarily adopted it in vertebrates such as the porcupine, hedgehog,
and the dinosaur Anklyosaurus, indicate that exoskeletons are nonetheless
really useful, not just as support structures, but also as armour-plating.
Armour-Plated Animals
For most of Earth history, organisms did not possess armour-plating. Its
invention during the late Precambrian and early Cambrian, between
about 550 and 520 million years ago, may have led to an evolutionary
arms race between predator and predated, rather in the way that the
discovery of metal—and artificial armour-plating—in the Bronze Age
produced an arms race between different human cultures that still goes
on today.
Despite the limits to size, many groups of animals make their skel-
etons on the outside, not just because this is a good way to support and
articulate muscles, but because this armour-plating offers considerable
security against attack. Many of these animals with exoskeletons are as
familiar to us as snails, oysters, and the Nautilus, though some molluscs
buck this trend—squid having a remnant shell on the inside, but no shell
on the outside. Corals, brachiopods, and less commonly known groups
such as pterobranchs, bryozoans, and phoronids also have their skel-
etons on the outside. But the most successful group of animals to have
evolved exoskeletons are the Ecdysozoa, those which periodically shed
their ‘skins’ by moulting (a process technically termed ecdysis, hence the
name), and which include ants, velvet worms, priapulid worms, beetles,
spiders, and crabs. To this group of ‘skin-shedding’ animals belong
groups such as the polychaete worms, well known to fishermen, who
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Precambrian and early Cambrian times. SSFs are one of nature’s first
extensive experiments with making many different types of complex
biomineralized skeletons. While some SSFs represent the whole skeleton
of a tiny presumed animal, as with Cloudina, most are disassembled and
hence need putting back together.
One of the great pioneers of studying the disarticulated remains of
these early animal skeletons was Englishman Edgar Sterling Cobbold,
born in 1851, the eldest son of a surgeon. Cobbold worked as a civil
engineer—he was in part responsible for engineering the impressive late
Victorian dams of the Elan Valley in central Wales that supply the English
city of Birmingham with much of its water. But it was really geology that
he devoted himself to. In 1886, he moved to the small Shropshire town of
Church Stretton, near the border with Wales. With its nearby rolling hills
encompassing strata of Precambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, and Silurian
age, Church Stretton was a veritable paradise for Cobbold. Or rather, he
made it so, becoming adept, over decades of work, at patiently gleaning
fossils even from unpromising-looking rock layers, and then patiently
extricating them from the tough rock matrix, with the help of a mounted
needle and magnifying glass. He was one of those tireless, dedicated field
geologists who took the broad geological visions of the great geologists
of Victorian times and hammered them out into precisely detailed pat-
terns of the history of ancient life.
Cobbold—who continued to collect fossils to within a week of his
death—found, amongst many other fossils, small shelly fossils in Cam-
brian rocks near the hamlet of Comley. Cobbold recorded his fossil
discoveries in many scientific publications. Perhaps his most significant
work, published in 1921, is The Cambrian Horizons of Comley (Shropshire) and
their Brachiopoda, Pteropoda, Gasteropoda, etc. The title is dry, but the study
was meticulous and influential. Amongst his many descriptions in
that work is that of the skeleton of an animal he called Lapworthella,
after one of those grand figures of Victorian times, Charles Lapworth,
Professor at Birmingham University and founder of the Ordovician
System. Lapworthella is included among the small shelly fossils, being
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12,000 30,000
Tar-acid—Furfural:
Wood flour filler 5,000- 10-25 28,000- 10,000- 0.08
12,000 36,000 16,000
Mineral filler 4,000- 10-45 24,000- 8,000- 0.08
12,000 36,000 14,000
Fabric filler 5,000- 7-12 26,000- 10,000- 1.6
10,000 30,000 16,000
Urea—Formaldehyde 8,000- 16 24,000- 13,000- 0.7
13,000 35,000 15,000
Vinyl, unfilled 8,000- 3.5-4.1 10,000- 0.3
10,000 13,000
Vinyl, filled 6,000- 3.5-8.5 0.1
12,000
Acrylate 7,000- 1.0 6 8,000 15,000- 0.25
9,000 17,000
Polystyrene 5,500- 1.0 4.6-5.1 13,000- 6,500- 0.16
7,500 13,500 8,000
Other plastics:
Shellac compound 900-
2,000
Cold molded 6,000- 5,300-
15,000 7,500
Nonrefractory
} 16,000 6,000
Refractory
Rubber compounds:
Chlorinated rubber 3.
Modified isomerized rubber 4,300 0.013 4.7 8,500-11,000 7,000- 2.6
9,000
Hard rubber 4,000- 8-15 5.3 8,000-
10,000 12,000
Casein 7,600 5.1-5.7
Cellulose compounds:
Ethyl cellulose 2,000- 2.8 1-4; I, N
7,000
Cellulose acetate sheet 6,000- 20-55 1-3 4,000- 2-7; C,
11,000 16,000
Cellulose acetate molding 3,500- 10-48 2-4 11,000- 5,200- 3-12; C,
10,000 16,000 8,800
Cellulose nitrate 5,000- 10-40 2-4 3-12; C,
10,000
3 50 kg. load.
5 Shore.
6 10 kg. load.
Note.—The values for the properties in this table are based upon maximum and minimum figures
submitted to Modern Plastics by a number of manufacturers of each type of material. Differences in
test procedures and sizes of test specimens may lead to erroneous conclusions in some cases if
direct comparisons are attempted. Special grades of materials are often available which excel in one
particular property.
Source: Modern Plastics, vol. 15, No. 2, opp. p. 120; October 1937.
Resistance
Dis
Thermal Specific Thermal to Softening
Type u
conductivity heat expansion continuous point
h
heat
10⁻⁴ calories
per second per Calories per
square centimeter °C. per gram 10⁻⁶ per °C. °F. °F.
per 1°C. per
centimeter
Synthetic resins:
Tar-acid—Formaldehyde:
Molded, wood flour filler 4-12.2 0.35-0.36 3.7-7.5 350 None 24
Molded, mineral filler 8-20 0.25-0.35 2.5-4 450 do.
Molded, fabric filler 3-5 0.30-0.35 2-6 250-350 do.
Laminated, paper base 5-8 0.3 -0.4 2 212-300 do. 3
Laminated, fabric base 5-8 0.3 -0.4 3 212-350 do.
Laminated, asbestos cloth base 2 400-500 do.
Cast 3-5 0.3-0.4 2.8 160
Tar-acid—Furfural:
Wood flour filler 3.5-5 0.3-0.4 3 280-400 Chars 450 26
Mineral filler 10-20 0.3-0.4 2 350-500 Chars 550 27
Fabric filler 5-8 0.3-0.4 4.5 280-350 Chars 400
Urea—Formaldehyde 7.13 1.5 160 None 2
Vinyl, unfilled 4 0.244 6.9 130-160 14
Vinyl, filled Varies Varies Varies 130-160 14
Acrylate 4.3-6.8 0.45 8.5 170-235
Styrol 1.9 0.324 10.2 110-200
Other plastics:
Shellac compound 150-190 150
Cold molded:
Nonrefractory 500
Refractory 1,300
Rubber compounds:
Chlorinated rubber 175-230
Modified isomerized rubber 2.6-2.9 7-8 165-220 16
Hard rubber 3.2 0.33 8.0 150-190
Casein 8 2
Cellulose compounds:
Ethyl cellulose 21
Cellulose acetate sheet 5.4-8.7 0.3-0.4 14-16 140-180 140-230 12
Cellulose acetate molding 5.4-8.7 0.3-0.45 14-16 140-180 145-260 12
Cellulose nitrate 3.1-5.1 0.34-0.38 12-16 ca. 140 160-195
Note.—The values for the properties in this table are based upon maximum and minimum figures
submitted to Modern Plastics by a number of manufacturers of each type of material. Differences in
test procedures and sizes of test specimens may lead to erroneous conclusions in some cases if
direct comparisons are attempted. Special grades of material are often available which excel in one
particular property.
Source: Modern Plastics, vol. 15, No. 2, opp. p. 120. October 1937.
Volume
resistivity Dielectric constant Power fact
Breakdown
(50
voltage,
percent
Type 60 cycles
relative
(volts per mil 60 10³ 10⁶ 60 10³
humidity)
(instantaneous)) cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles
(ohm =
cms)
Synthetic resins:
Tar-acid—Formaldehyde:
Molded, wood flour filler 10¹⁰-10¹² 300-500 5-12 4-8 4.5-8 0.04- 0.04-
0.30 0.15
Molded, mineral filler 10⁹-10¹¹ 250-400 5-20 4.5- 4.5- 0.10- 0.10-
20 20 0.30 0.15
Molded, fabric filler 10⁹-10¹¹ 300-450 5-10 4.5-6 4.5-6 0.08- 0.08-
0.30 0.20
Laminated, paper base 10¹⁰-10¹³ 400-1,300 4-6
Note.—The values for the properties in this table are based upon maximum and minimum figures
submitted to Modern Plastics by a number of manufacturers of each type of material. Differences in
test procedures and sizes of test specimens may lead to erroneous conclusions in some cases if
direct comparisons are attempted. Special grades of materials are often available which excel in one
particular property.
Source: Modern Plastics, vol. 15, No. 2, opp. p. 120. October 1937.
Table 22.—Synthetic resins and other plastics: Specific gravity, specific volume, and resistance to other
substances
Water
absorption, Ef
Specific Specific Effect of Effect of
Type immersion w
gravity volume weak acids strong acids
a
24 hours1
Cubic inches
per pound
Synthetic resins:
Tar-acid—Formaldehyde:
Molded, wood flour filler 1.34- 20.7-18.2 0.2-0.6 None to Varies2 Sl
1.52 slight. m
Molded, mineral filler 1.70- 16.4-13.3 0.01-0.3 do. do.2
2.09
Molded, fabric filler 1.37- 20.2-19.8 1.0-1.3 do. do.2
1.40
Laminated, paper base 1.34- 20.7-17.8 0.5-9.0 do. do.2
1.55
Laminated, fabric base 1.34- 20.7-17.8 0.5-9.0 do. do.2
1.55
Laminated, asbestos cloth base 1.6- 17.3-16.8 0.5 do. do.2
1.65
Cast 1.27- 21.8-20.0 0.01-0.5 do.
1.32
Tar-acid—Furfural:
Wood flour filler 1.3-1.4 21.3-19.8 0.2-0.6 do. do.2
Mineral filler 1.6-2.0 17.3-13.9 0.01-0.15 do. do.2
Fabric filler 1.3-1.4 21.3-19.8 0.8-1.4 do. do.2
Urea—Formaldehyde 1.48- 18.7-16.5 1-2 do. Decomposed
1.50 or surface
attacked.
Vinyl, unfilled 1.34- 20.7-20.4 0.05-0.15 Resistant Resistant Re
1.36
Vinyl, filled 1.35- 20.5-11.1 0.2-4.0 Dependent Dependent Dep
2.5 on filler. on filler. on
Acrylate 1.18 23.3 0.3 None Oxidizing N
acids attack
surface.
Polystyrene 1.05- 26.3-25.8 0 do. None
1.07
Other plastics:
Shellac compound 1.1-2.7 25.2-10.3 Deteriorates Deteriorates Dete
Cold molded:
Nonrefractory 1.98- 14.0-13.9 1.5 Slight Decomposes Deco
2.0
Refractory 2.2 12.6 0.5-15 Decomposes do. N
Rubber compounds:
Chlorinated rubber 1.5 18.5 0.1-0.3 Resistant Resistant Re
1 ASTM D48-33.
3 On bleed-proof materials.
4 Resists alcohols, aliphatic hydrocarbons, and oils. Soluble in ketones and esters; swells in
aromatic hydrocarbons.
5 Soluble in ketones, esters, and aromatic hydrocarbons.
6 48 hours.
Note.—The values for the properties in this table are based upon maximum and minimum figures
submitted to Modern Plastics by a number of manufacturers of each type of material. Differences in
test procedure and sizes of test specimens may lead to erroneous conclusions in some cases if direct
comparisons are attempted. Special grades of materials are often available which excel in one
particular property.
Source: Modern Plastics, vol. 15, No. 2, opp. p. 120. October 1937.
15. SYNTHETIC RESINS IN OTHER
COUNTRIES
Large-scale production of synthetic resins is confined principally to the United
States, Germany, and Great Britain. There is small production in many other
countries, of which the most important are France, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Canada,
and Japan.
In 1934 the world output was estimated at 135 million pounds, of which the United
States produced about 44 percent, Germany 26 percent, and Great Britain 24
percent. In 1937 world output was estimated at 360 million pounds, the United
States’ share of the total being almost 50 percent, followed by 27 percent for
Germany, 20 percent for Great Britain, and the remaining 3 percent scattered.
European estimates indicate that about 40 percent of the output goes into surface
coatings and that 60 percent of the surface-coating resins are tar-acid and 40
percent alkyds. The Tariff Commission found that in 1937 50 percent of the United
States production of all synthetic resins went into surface coatings, 27 percent into
molded articles, and the remaining 23 percent into laminating and miscellaneous
uses. Approximately three-fourths of the surface-coating resins were alkyds and
one-fourth tar-acid resins.
GERMANY
Production.
The original and most important use of synthetic resins in Germany was for
electrical insulation. This use was so extensive that the industry was organized in
1924 into an association known as non-rubber insulation materials industry.
Materials were standardized and classified into 14 types, of which 5 were tar-acid
resins and 1 was a urea resin. Every type must meet certain specifications in order
to be recognized by the Reich Testing Institute. More than 100 firms produce
insulating materials meeting the institute’s specifications.
Radio panels of the popular sets sponsored by the Government are made of
synthetic resins. Consumption in the automobile industry is increasing for such parts
as instrument panels, electrical equipment, steering wheels, gear-shift knobs, and
numerous others. The latest airplanes show increased use of synthetic resins,
where they contribute light weight, great strength, and resistance to corrosion.
In cameras and moving-picture equipment, wood and metal have been in part
replaced by synthetic resins. Other applications of resins in Germany include
bearings for rolling mills, goggles and spectacles (including the lens), and perfume
and medicine bottles.
Resins for surface coatings are undergoing rapid development in Germany, owing
to the shortage of linseed oil. Alkyd resins in coatings are being promoted by the
Government, which prohibits or limits the use of the older oil-type coatings for
certain uses so as to decrease the use of linseed oil and other paint oils that must
be imported and hence require outlays of foreign exchange. Penalties have been
imposed for violating the regulations.[13]
Organization.
Foreign trade.
Imports of synthetic resins are negligible, although the duty of 4.6 cents per pound
(25 marks per 100 kilograms) on imports into Germany is not prohibitive. Exports
have increased practically every year since 1930, when they were first recorded
separately.
Table 23 shows the quantity and value of exports in recent years.
1 Preliminary.
German exports of synthetic resins are, for the most part, destined to European
countries, most of which have increased their purchases considerably in recent
years. Exports to Latin American countries have increased recently, especially to
Brazil. Table 24 shows the distribution of exports in recent years.
[Thousands of marks]
Destination 1934 1935 1936 19371
Austria 259 352 446 593
Belgium 215 259 297 420
Czechoslovakia 347 345 604 825
Denmark 316 391 473 540
France 626 651 680 734
Great Britain 1,247 563 596 844
Hungary 240 135 182 (2)
Italy 252 359 523 615
Netherlands 530 572 645 1,031
Spain 225 302 178 57
Sweden 415 457 463 691
Switzerland 721 705 714 749
Other European countries 370 618 706 (2)
Argentina 250 207 194 (2)
Brazil 46 77 109 (2)
Other Latin American countries 17 18 75 (2)
All other countries 501 427 436 2,692
Total 6,577 6,438 7,321 9,791
1 Preliminary.
GREAT BRITAIN[14]
As in most other countries, the history of the synthetic-resin industry in Great
Britain begins with the acquisition of rights by a British concern to manufacture
under the original Bakelite patents. The Damard Lacquer Co., Ltd. was probably the
pioneer maker of phenolic resins in England. The principal product was a baking
lacquer sold under the trade name Damarda, marketed for and used principally as a
coating to prevent corrosion on brass. The outbreak of the World War created such
an urgent demand for laminated materials that this firm started production of them
for the British Government. In 1926 this concern was merged with Mouldesite, Ltd.
and Redmanol, Ltd., under the name of Bakelite, Ltd.
Production.
Statistics of production of synthetic resins in Great Britain are available only for
1934 and 1935. They are given in table 25.
Organization.
Most of the British producers of synthetic resins are members of the British
Plastics Federation, Ltd.
Several years ago a 10-year contract was made between the Imperial Chemical
Industries, Ltd. and the Toledo Synthetic Products Co. (now Plaskon Co.) of Toledo,
Ohio. This agreement provides for an exchange of all technical and commercial
information on urea-resin products and processes and the granting of free licenses
under present or future patents.
Agreements probably also exist between the British Bakelite Co. and the
American firm on tar-acid resins; between Nobel Chemical Finishes, Ltd. and E. I. du
Pont de Nemours & Co. on alkyd resins; between British Thompson Houston Co.,
Ltd., and the General Electric Co. on alkyd resins; between Imperial Chemical
Industries, Ltd. and du Pont on acrylate resins; and between Beetle Products Co.
and American Cyanamid Co. on urea resins.
British imports of synthetic resins, by principal sources, are shown in table 26.
Table 26.—Synthetic resins: Imports into the United Kingdom, in selected years,
1930-36
[1,000 pounds]
Source 1930 1931 1933 1934 1935 1936
British countries. 1 (1) 5 2 19 24
Germany 508 1,621 2,267 2,259 1,476 914
Netherlands 679 667 151 114 (2) (2)
UNITED STATES 119 229 656 902 986 1,056
All other countries 65 281 246 257 323 435
Total 1,372 2,798 3,470 3,534 2,804 2,429
British exports of synthetic resins to principal countries are shown in table 27.
Table 27.—Synthetic resins: Exports from the United Kingdom, in selected years,
1930-36
[1,000 pounds]
Source 1930 1931 1933 1934 1935 1936
British countries 138 170 992 1,350 1,788 2,732
Sweden 40 69 242 452 558 650
Denmark (1) (1) 99 140 159 150
Belgium (1) (1) 104 205 237 203
Italy (1) 1
( ) 49 95 1
( ) (1)
Argentina (1) (1) 28 198 156 238
All other countries 104 171 366 505 735 1,084
Total 282 410 1,880 2,945 3,633 5,057
FRANCE[15]
Producers.
Statistics of French production and sales of synthetic resin are not available.
Larousse Commercial Illustré describes the French synthetic resin industry as not
important and estimates the output in
1930 at 2,000,000 pounds. The Revue Général des Matières Plastiques, most
important technical review in France, estimates the production in 1931 as about
3,500,000 pounds.
The comparatively few French companies producing synthetic resins are, for the
most part, under British or German control. The types of synthetic resin made in
France, the trade names, and the names of the manufacturers, follow:
Bakelite.—Tar-acid molding compounds and laminating materials; cast phenolic
resins; Cie La Bakelite, Bezous, Seine.
Plastose and Ferodo.—Tar-acid molding compounds; Société Ferodo-Plastose,
Saint Ouen, Seine.
Pollopas.—Urea molding compounds and laminating materials; Établissements
Kuhlmann, Paris.
Foreign trade.
French imports of synthetic resins are classified under tariff item No. 0376 bis:
Synthetic resins (solid or resinous products of the Bakelite, Albertol, Plastose types,
etc.) derived from the condensation of aldehydes with phenols, amines, and amides.
Several subclassifications are shown: (a) Soluble in oil and not polymerizable, (b)
which may be rendered insoluble and infusible, and (c) infusible. Imports in recent
years, from principal sources, are shown in table 28.
Table 28.—Synthetic resins: French imports, by types and by countries, 1931 and
1933-37
[Pounds]
Source 1931 1933 1934 1935 1936 19371
Soluble in oil
Germany 563,860 1,003,860 1,359,600 1,164,470 1,085,766 (2)
UNITED STATES 174,900 126,280 185,680 284,458 162,699 (2)
United Kingdom 184,800 131,120 80,520 109,789 18,960 (2)
Austria 35,640 162,580 193,564 575,180 (2)
Netherlands 49,720 16,755 (2) (2)
All other countries 4,620 5,720 3,080 11,023 33,069 (2)
Total 928,180 1,352,340 1,791,460 1,744,059 1,875,894 1,794,985
Molding compounds
United Kingdom 21,780 71,060 10,340 11,243 23,589 (2)
Germany 248,600 49,060 20,460 68,563 39,242 (2)
Switzerland 13,200 31,900 11,464 (2) (2)
UNITED STATES 11,220 18,920 22,660 20,062 66,799 (2)
Belgium 31,240 49,500 7,716 (2) (2)
All other countries 3,080 4,840 6,173 5,732 (2)
Total 284,680 183,480 139,700 125,221 135,362 105,380
Molded, cast, and laminated articles
Germany 12,980 7,700 4,840 9,039 17,857 (2)
Netherlands 220 (2)
Austria 4,840 440 220 (2)
United Kingdom 220 (2)
UNITED STATES 220 220 (2)
All other countries 1,320 1,984 (2)
Total 19,140 8,360 5,280 9,479 19,841 8,377
1 Preliminary.
Exports of synthetic resins from France, by principal markets, are shown in table
29.
[Pounds]
Destination 1931 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937
Belgium 203,060 224,180 186,780 113,757 165,565 (1)
Argentina 69,080 91,300 (1) (1) (1)
Switzerland 16,940 12,787 37,258 (1)
Italy 12,980 (1) (1) (1)
All other countries 4,840 29,260 15,180 54,895 36,376 (1)
Total 220,880 322,520 310,200 181,439 239,199 417,772
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Production of phenolic resins in Czechoslovakia has increased rapidly in recent
years and is ample to supply domestic requirements. Most of the raw materials are
imported from Germany, Great Britain, and France, but formaldehyde is produced
locally in sufficient quantities.
The principal makers of synthetic resins in Czechoslovakia are:
Resin products are widely used by the electrical industries for wall plates, plugs,
switches, fuse boxes, etc. Other articles made of synthetic resins are: handles and
knobs for furniture and kitchen equipment, bottle caps, fountain pens and pencils,
clock and radio housings, tableware, cutlery handles, trays, buttons, toilet ware and
toys.
Imports of synthetic resins in 1934 totaled 1,270,500 pounds; Germany supplied
46 percent and Great Britain 22 percent of this total. Exports of synthetic resins
during the same year amounted to 166,540 pounds and went principally to Poland,
Yugoslavia, Germany, and Argentina.
ITALY
The Societa Italiana Resine, an affiliate of the important chemical firm, Chimiche
Forestali, is a leading maker of tar-acid resins in Italy. A new and modern plant is
located at Milan in close proximity to the electrical and textile industries, both
important markets for resins.
In 1936 the Ministry of Corporations granted Montecatini Societe Generale per
l’Industria Mineraria, Milan, a permit to develop a factory for alkyd resins; and also
Societe Italiana Ebonite and Sostituti, Milan, one to produce tar-acid resins. In 1937
a permit was granted to Montecatini S.A. for a plant to manufacture acrylic acid
resins at the Villadossola works of the Soc. Elletrochimica del Toce.
JAPAN[16]
The history of the synthetic resin industry in Japan goes back to 1913 when Dr.
Jokichi Takamine, discoverer of adrenalin and takadiastase, acquired the right to
manufacture and sell tar-acid resin Products in Japan. The business was financed
by the Sankyo Co., Ltd., and a factory was built at Shinagawa, near Tokyo. In 1923 a
subsidiary company known as the Japan Bakelite Co., Ltd., was formed with a paid-
in capital of 1,200,000 yen. This firm considers itself an affiliate of the Bakelite
Corporation of the United States and, according to an existing agreement, cannot
export to the United States. Its territory includes the Japanese Empire and
Manchukuo. China is considered an open market.
The original plant at Shinagawa was partially destroyed by fire in 1919, and the
following year was moved to Mukojima, Tokyo. The firm makes tar-acid resins, and a
full line of products covered by the patents of the American concern. Included are
laminated sheets, molding compounds, molded articles, surface coating resins,
laminated resin gears and spindles for rayon mills. An interesting development is the
adaption of tar-acid resin lacquers to the production of Japanese lacquer ware such
as bowls, vases, etc.
Since the establishment of the Japan Bakelite Co., several other firms have
started the production of synthetic resins. The Tokyo Electric Co., an affiliate of the
General Electric Co., makes tar-acid resins under the trade name Tecolite. Products
are used principally for insulation, although molding compositions and molded
articles such as are used by the electrical trade are commercially produced.
The Matsushita Electrical Works at Osaka are producers of tar-acid resins and
articles made therefrom. The output is used largely for radio and electrical
equipment. The Nissholite Manufacturing Co., Ltd., with a factory at Yasui-cho,
Uzumasa, Kyoto specializes in decorative laminated material sold under the trade
name Nissholite. The Japan Nitrogenous Fertilizer Co. (Nippon Chisso Hirijo
Kabushiki Kaisha) is an important maker of tar-acid resins, marketing them under
the trade names Chissolite, Safeloid, and Minaloid. The Yokahama Resin Co., a
relatively small company, produces tar-acid resins and markets them in the form of
molding powders. The firms listed account for practically all of the Japanese
production of synthetic resins and for about 50 percent of the molded articles made
from them. The remaining 50 percent of the output of molded articles is made by a
large number of small firms, the majority being household industries. It is reported
that there are about 2,000 of these so-called plants already engaged in this relatively
new industry.
Production.
Value
Year Quantity Of quantity
Additional1 Total
reported
Pounds
1929 28,681 $46,594 $125,404 $171,998
1930 607,800 52,409 442,583 494,992
1931 744,119 99,907 268,594 368,501
1932 286,422 36,584 367,220 403,804
1933 229,854 26,747 516,903 543,650
1934 1,435,977 193,857 926,951 1,120,808
1935 3,176,441 477,526 923,546 1,401,072
CANADA
The producers of synthetic resins in Canada are:
The Bakelite Corporation of Canada, Ltd., an affiliate of the firm of the same name
in the United States, was formed in 1925. This plant makes molding materials,
laminating materials, and an extensive line of technical varnishes. Molded parts
were made at this factory until 1932.
Shawinigan Chemicals, Ltd. is the pioneer organic chemical maker in Canada. A
modern plant at Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, produces synthetic acetic acid,
acetaldehyde, vinyl acetate, vinyl resins, and other chemicals. The vinyl resins
manufactured by this firm have already been described (see p. 44). Appreciable
quantities of these resins have been exported to the United States in the past but
the construction of a factory (jointly owned by Shawinigan Chemicals, Ltd., and the
Fiberloid Corporation) at Indian Orchard, Mass., for the manufacture of vinyl resins
will probably result in a decrease of exports from Canada to the United States.
The Canadian General Electric Co. makes alkyd resins for use in surface
coatings. Phthalic anhydride and other raw materials are imported from the United
States. Canadian Industries, Ltd., produces alkyd resins at a plant in Toronto,
Ontario.
There are about 14 molders of synthetic resins in Canada, of which all but 3 are in
Ontario. These firms make a general line of molded articles including electrical
articles, closures, costume jewelry, and smokers’ accessories. Appreciable
quantities of molded articles are imported from the United States and smaller
quantities from Germany.
THE NETHERLANDS
There has been no production of synthetic resins in the Netherlands; but a plant is
under construction (October 1937) at Groningen for the manufacture of alkyd resins.
The manufacture of surface coating and electrical parts from imported resins is
carried on, chiefly by N. V. Philips’ Gloeilampenfabrieken, Afdeeling Inkoop,
Eindhaven, manufacturers of radios, filament lamps, and electrical appliances.
Efforts are being made to employ resins for other purposes, such as the bonding of
plywood and the manufacture of closures and novelties, but little has been
accomplished thus far. The relatively high cost of the resins is the principal difficulty.
Molding compounds and laminated sheets, rods, and tubes are imported from
Germany, Great Britain, Austria, and the United States.
The paint, varnish, and lacquer industry in the Netherlands has been
experimenting with synthetic resins for several years. Alkyd resins of the glycerol
phthalate type are being used by Dutch paint makers, imported principally from
Germany and Austria. In spite of high cost, they have been found to have many
advantages, especially better and more uniform quality. The prices of gums and
resins in the Netherlands during the latter part of 1936 are shown in table 31.
Florins per
Type
100 kilos
Damar 37.
Congo copal (various qualities) 12 to 45.
Indian copal (various qualities) 20 to 35.
Kauri (various qualities) 25 to 200.
Shellac (various qualities) 37 to 52.
Pine resin (rosin) (various qualities) 13 to 14.
Synthetic resins 80 to 120.
The Dutch aviation industry is using tar-acid resins to bond plywood for wing
surfacing on Fokker-type wooden planes. The advantages obtained are excellent
adhesiveness and resistance to moisture and temperature changes. In this
application they have replaced casein.
Germany supplies more than 85 percent of the Netherland imports of synthetic
resins, as shown in table 32.
[Pounds]
Source 1931 1933 1934 1935 1936 19371
Germany 1,203,393 1,257,568 1,207,857 1,351,581 1,490,310 2,449,311
United
Kingdom 8,520 47,843 64,458 94,565 335,099 1,223,553
Austria 63,758 7,297 30,886 63,642 (2) 132,276
UNITED
STATES 3,168 24,193 27,434 50,888 (2) (2)
Belgium 2,640 3,923 1,514 (2) (2)
France 3,120 4,129 616 (2) (2)
Czechoslovakia 3,326 4,948 (2) (2)
Switzerland 1,789 4,193 (2) (2)
Other countries 1,450 1,027 2,629 1,573 216,051 207,232
Total 1,288,044 1,354,112 1,337,393 1,564,379 2,041,460 4,012,372
1 Preliminary.
DENMARK
The annual output of synthetic resins in Denmark is about 500,000 pounds,
almost entirely of the tar-acid type.
Bakelite is produced by the Nordiske Kabel and Traadfabrikker A. S. Fabrikvej at
Copenhagen. Other brands made in Denmark are Nokait, Helomit, and Etronit.
There are 14 manufacturers of finished products, making electrical equipment
principally.
POLAND
Production of synthetic resins in Poland in 1936 totaled 660,000 pounds, entirely
of the tar-acid type.