Plastics in Industrial Arts

For a long time the public has expressed a keen interest in synthetic materials, whether as substitutes for natural resources that will one day be exhausted, or as improvements upon natural materials whose limitations have become apparent. Among all the products and processes that chemistry has found, none has attracted more attention than plastics. During the last two decades, there has been tremendous development in the plastics industry. War-time conditions multiplied enormously the uses of this product. Every day new uses are found for this material and it is no longer considered as a substitute for scarce materials. Plastic articles are everywhere about us, yet a surprisingly few of us know very much about plastics. Our industrial arts departments pride themselves on being so organized that students may explore all industrial channels open to them in adult life, yet few of them offer a course in plastics. In view these facts, the problem confronting the writer of this paper is to show the need for a unit in plastics in industrial arts; show the ease in which the unit can be added to an existing woodwork unit; and show the ease with which the material can be worked. The increasing importance of plastics merits it\u27s introduction into the school program. The rapid and almost phenomenal growth of plastics has created a vital need for men trained in the industry and at the same times brought the use of plastics well within the reach of the craftsman. At the present time the dearth of experienced personnel is steadily becoming more acute and as the plastics industry continues to expand, this need is bound to make itself manifest. Tremendous opportunities are now open to those individuals who wish to enter this vast expansion and it behooves the enterprising graduate to gain whatever knowledge he can pertaining to various phases of the industry.1 The hypothesis of this study is -- plastics should be included in exploratory courses of industrial arts. The study will cover the tools, equipment, and work processes for the types of plastics best suited for industrial arts classes. At the outset of this paper, the writer made the following basic assumptions: (1) To the writer\u27s knowledge, most industrial arts shops in Texas do not have a course in plastics; (2) It would follow then, that few industrial arts students have been exposed to plastics; (3) Plastics can be easily acquired and (4) A minimum amount of special equipment is needed to work plastics. It is the primary purpose of the writer to analyse the possibilities of a unit in plastics in the industrial arts shop with a view to giving high school students an opportunity to become familiar with a material that is becoming as common as wood or metal in the industrial world. 1 J. H. Dubois, Plastics, p.