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Article ID: CBB001201127

A World of Colour and Bright Shining Surfaces: Experiences of Plastics after the Second World War (2013)

Fisher, Tom (Author)

Journal of Design History
Volume: 26
Pages: 285--303
Publication date: 2013
Language: English

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World War II Plastics; rubber; polymers Science and technology, relationships Hygiene Environmental hygiene; Human ecology Plastics industry Technology and culture Popular culture Users of technology 20th century, late

Covering the years of the Second World War and up to the mid-1970s, this article delineates shifts in the meanings of plastics, drawing from publications aimed at a general reader, advertisements from interior design magazines and early market research reports from the Hagley Library, Wilmington, Delaware. Plastics had already acquired a `double' character---both advanced and inauthentic---and these years saw enormous expansion in the consumption of plastic goods, which were heavily promoted by the industry for the `wipe-clean' hygiene that derived from their sheer surfaces. The article discusses the qualities of these surfaces and the implications of their frequent characterisation to consumers as vehicles for a bright colourful post-war life. Consumers' direct experiences of plastics' infinitely specifiable surfaces were implicated in a development of the more negative side of their character by the mid-1960s, along with growing awareness of the effects of everyday chemicals on the environment. This article adds to the existing literature that focuses on plastics as an element of the history of business and technology.

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