Plastics Manufacturing Industries
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Modelling a plastics factory
The plastics industry has two sides, the factories making the basic material (often associated with oil refineries) and those using the product to make things. In some cases the two functions were combined (for example at the British Cellophae Ltd works discussed below). As in most factories you can expect tight curves and get away with short radius or 'set track' points, so you can squeeze quite a lot into a small space. If space is very tight the factory can be painted on the backscene with an 'exchange siding' run in front (you can even run a small works shunter to transfer stock in and out of the factory).
For a model railway you can get away with a generic 'Cleggs Plastics Co', you can even add a made up product name 'Makers of Plasmite and Plastite' . Unless you have a particular livery available in the RTR rolling stock or you are modelling a specific location this is probably the easiest option. You can then include whatever you have in your 'bits box' by way of tanks, buildings, gantries etc. and operate whatever rolling stock you like.
For one of the firms making things from plastics a similarly generic 'Bensons Mouldings' (who might conceivably offer Plasmite and Plastite Fittings) would serve.
No distinctive buildings are required for either type of generic factory, although you might adopt a curious structure from a photo of a real factory for inclusion. Generally there will be some industrial tanks outside (typically about six to ten feet in diameter and perhaps twelve to twenty feet high), and of course their associated pipe work. For materials sold in pellet or powder form you might have one of the distinctive buildings associated with this material. These buildings were in use by the mid to late 1930s (possibly earlier).
Fig ___ Buildings for powdered materials
Silos have been a feature of plastics factories since the 1950s, the example below shows a set of three storage silos at a plastics factory, the photograph was taken in the later 1980s.
Fig ___ Silos at a plastics factory
Traffic into such a generic 'plastics' factory could include open, sheeted and closed hopper wagons, tanks of various kinds as well as normal open wagons and vans.
You can of course select a particular factory on the line you model, although that might entail some research and scratch building to add distinctive structures fro the prototype. Some notable British plastics manufacturers are discussed below, which might offer some ideas.
Incoming cargo's to this type of works would include whatever materials were to be used, for example a pre-war plastics mouldings factory might take in drums of resins and bags of powders, or for post-war PVC related plastics sacks or hopper wagon loads of vinyl chloride or, after the 1980s, tanks of liquid vinyl chloride monomer. Vinyl chloride is used for a range of plastic types, including hard plastics (such as those in car interiors) and foam mattresses.
The best option would be to look for books describing the individual line you model (Wild Swan have produced some excellent books with a lot of detail on the factories served). You may also find odd useful photographs in collections of post cards and the 'then and now' type photographic histories.
The illustration shown below left is from a pamphlet issued by Somerset County Council in the 1930s and shows (I believe) the somewhat overgrown rail access point for the British Cellophane Co factory (this company is discussed below in more detail). From a modelling perspective there are three main elements; the building on the right (offices, labs and workshops) the tanks and pipework in the centre and the building on the left (the main production building). The tanks and pipes were (apparently) black in the 1930s, by the 1990s they were mainly 'stone' (similar to the GWR stone colour). The big chimney was still there when the factory closed in 2005. This can be modelled in a corner site as shown below right.
Fig ___ British Cellophane Ltd Factory
I have assumed oil-firing for the boilers, so no need for a coal heap, but a heap of some raw material or other can be included to the left of the tanks and pipes as shown. The pipework from the tanks on the right is carried over the straight siding on gantries.
For making cellophane (the UK trade name for cellulose film) you would have regular tanks of caustic soda, I believe some of these tank wagons were also of the 'hutched' type mentioned above.
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Outline History
For many hundreds of years we have used naturally occurring plastics such as horn and tortoise shell. Manufactured plastics are not all that new, the term 'polymer' first appeared in 1866. Plastics are all 'polymers' but beyond that it gets rather complicated rather quickly (for a fuller discussion on the nature and history of plastics see the website of The Plastics Historical Society at http://www.plastiquarian.com. The notes that follow are those prepared for my god son which I tidied up before finding the above website.
Naturally occurring plastics such as 'Casein' from cows milk and 'zein' which is a protein recovered from corn gluten meal using alcohol, was patented in Germany in 1899. Casein is made by treating skimmed milk with Rennet enzyme, the resulting precipitate is dried and forms a white powder. Mixed with water this powder tuns into a thermosetting plastic 'dough'. It can be moulded and was used for a range of applications but its main use was as a wood glue. Casein was used to make white 'milk buttons', popular for ladies clothing, although these tended to fail when they got wet.
Cellulose Nitrate was invented in 1846, it is made by soaking cotton (or wood shavings) in nitric and sulphuric acids. The result is an explosive material which produces little smoke, it was soon pressed into military service as 'gun cotton'. The original scientific name for nitrated cellulose was actually 'xyloidine', hence the The British Xylonite Company discussed below.
'Celluloid', is a trade name for one of the (slightly) less explosive varieties of nitro-cellulose, celluloid is cellulose nitrate mixed with camphor. It was invented in the UK by Alexander Parkes in 1855 and was produced commercially by the American John H. Hyatt in 1872 for making billiard balls (much cheaper than the standard type made from ivory and better than cheap wooden alternatives). Hyatt formed the Celluloid Manufacturing Company (originally the Albany Dental Plate Company) in 1870, the name soon changed to Albany Billiard Ball Company and they are still manufacturing balls in the U.S.A. today. Unfortunately however the explosive nature of the material, coupled with some vigorous playing, reputedly caused the a number of gun fights in the 'wild west'. In 1872 Hyatt Bros patented the first plastic 'injection moulding' machine.
At the same time however a Mr Daniel Spill, working initially with Mr Parkes, had developed the same product in England, which he patented as Xylonite, setting up the The British Xylonite Company in 1869. There followed a series of court cases until it was acknowledged that Mr Parkes was the actual inventor, allowing both firms to continue in production. Celluloid or Xylonite is made by the action of nitric and sulphuric acids on cellulose (in the form of wood pulp or cotton), the resulting nitrocellulose is then combined with camphor. This material was commonly used for the separate stiff collars and cuffs on gentleman's shirts. In 1890 'thermoforming' was introduced and cellulose nitrate was used to make babies rattles, by the 1890s it has replaced horn as the preferred material for hair combs (following a fashion for long hair) and was used in the first 'artificial leather' or 'leathercloth' as a dyed coating on fabric. One problem is that the camphor will evaporate over time, causing the material to shrink and crack.
In 1885 George Eastman (founder of Kodak) patented a machine for producing continuous photographic film based on cellulose nitrate. This became a common film stock and the problem of evaporating camphor and subsequent cracking of the film are a real concern for film preservationists. Due to its highly flammable nature cellulose nitrate film today falls under the explosives legislation.
Cellulose acetate is another old plastic, first invented by a French chemist in the 1860s, it was the 1890s before two British chemists (both with a background in paper making) patented an industrial production process. This stuff is made by reacting cotton scraps or wood pulp with acetic acid mixed with some sulphuric acid. An American by the name of George Miles discovered how to dissolve the stuff in acetone in 1904, and two Swiss chemists then set up to make film and lacquers using the stuff in 1910. When World War One broke out the Swiss firm set up a factory at Spondon in Derbyshire to make cellulose acetate 'dope' waterproofing for painting onto cloth-covered aircraft. After the war they continued production in England and produced the first acetate yarn 'Celanese' in 1919. The decamped to the USA in the mid 1920s as the raw materials were more readily available. In the same year, 'rayon' became adopted as a generic term for all 'artificial silk'.
Artificial silk or Rayon was first made in France in the 1884 but it was not produced in quantity successfully for many years. Rayon is a cellulose based fibre made from cotton or wood and a practical method of producing it was patented by Arthur Little (1863-1935) in 1902. This artificial silk was introduced into the Lancashire textile mills in the 1920's and along with other artificial silks was re-named rayon in 1924. Terylene was invented by Whinfield and Dickson in 1941 (the Americans call it Dacron) and silicon polymers were developed in about 1945.
Tetrachloroetane (vinyl chloride, produced using acetylene and hydrochloric acid, both gasses) was first made in 1835, this is the stuff from which PVC and most hard plastic are made, although those products took over a hundred years to develop. About 10 percent of a modern car (as of 2003) is made of plastics. Up to the early 1980s vinyl chloride was shipped as a white powder (actually polymerised pellets) but problems had shown up with liver disease in the workers exposed to it and thereafter it was most commonly shipped as 'VCM' or vinyl chloride monomer, a sweet smelling gas, chilled and shipped as a liquid (no one yet knows if this is actually any safer than the solid form).
From about 1900 the range of synthetic plastics expanded rapidly, a range of plastics derived from caesin was produced and viscose stocking were first made in Germany from 1915. In 1916 Rolls Royce begins to use phenol formaldehyde in its car interiors and advertises the fact. Bakelite was a common term for plastics up to the 1960's. This is actually a specific hard brittle plastic made by mixing Phenol and formaldehyde and squirting the mix into a mould. It was the first truly synthetic plastic material and was invented in 1907 by a Belgian called Leo Baekeland who was living in the USA at that time. It was used for a range of household and industrial items, often associated with electrical equipment. Later the word became a trade mark owned by the American Union Carbide company and was applied to a range of materials.
In the 1920s 'moulding powders' were developed, enabling a range of complex shapes to be produced. In 1922 a chap called Staudinger published a paper describing for the first time how plastics are made up of long chain molecules (he got the Nobel prize in 1935 for that work).
In 1924 a Mr Rossiter at British Cyanide developed urea formaldehyde resins, subsequently commercialised as the first water white transparent thermosetting moulding powder. Within a couple of years the fashionable were buying table ware made from this material (from firms such as produced by Brookes and Adams, The Streetly Manufacturing Company and Thomas De La Rue and Co.).
In 1926 the German engineers Eckert and Ziegler patented the first commercial modern plastics injection moulding machine and in 1929 Bakelite Ltd in the UK received its largest ever order for phenolic moulding powder for the casing of the new Siemens telephone.
In 1930 ‘Scotch’ tape (the first transparent sticky tape) was invented in the US by the 3M Company. Polythene, made from ethylene gas, was discovered and developed by I.C.I. in the 1930's and after the second world war it became an important packaging material first in the form of polythene bags, later as a film glued to a stiff card backing as the first form of clear 'blister packaging'.
In 1933 a German chemist patented 'Plexiglas', which is a hard transparent acrylic material, Polymethyl methacrylate) (PMMA). This was building on work done by other German chemists dating back to the 1840s, the first polymer based on this material was produced in Germany in the 1870s. PMMA was marketed in Britain and America as 'Perspex'. Perspex (described as 'safety glass') was first used for aircraft canopies in 1936 and in 1937 IG Farben began commercial production of polystyrene.
In 1938 polytetrafluroethene (PTFE) was invented by a chap working for Du Pont (the giant American chemical company). Commercial production only began in the 1940s, the material being marketed as 'Teflon'. During World War Two ICI obtained the UK manufacturing rights for PTFE, ICI call it 'Fluon'.
PTFE is made by treating fluorspar rock (calcium fluoride) with concentrated sulphuric acid to produce hydrofluoric acid, this is then treated with chloroform and super-heated steam to produce chlorodifluoromethane, also called HCFC-22 or Arcton-22, once an important a refrigerant gas now no longer used for refrigeration. The ICI arcton plant was at Runcorn (now owned and operated by a Japanese company, Asahi Glass Fluoropolymers).
Fig ___ Arcton pressurised gas tanks
The arcton was transported to the PTFE works at their Hillhouse plant near Blackpool. At the PTFE plant the arcton is heated with superheated steam and produces the unstable liquid TFE, this is polymerised, typically by putting the TFE into water containing ammonium persulphate at high temperature and pressures.
PTFE is the slipperiest substance known to man, in tape form is used by pipe fitters as a sealing tape when joining threaded pipe sections together (when I joined my first ship I was told in all seriousness by a Senior Engineering Officer that PTFE stood for Pipe Tape For Engineers). It is also the basis of the non-stick frying pan coating (developed by American and French scientists in the early 1950s and first marketed by 'Tefal', a company they set up, in 1956).
In 1969 someone by the name of Gore found they could heat and stretch PTFE to make it porous but the pores were so small they did not let water through, this material is now better known as 'Gore-tex'. PTFE is also used to add stain repellant coatings to fabrics and has several medical applications.
In the UK Polyethelene was developed at ICI in 1938, becoming a vital insulator in the development of radar during the war and by the 1940s the UK was producing PVC in large quantities. In 1941 Whinfield and Dickson (of the Calico Printer's Association of Manchester), patent "polyethylene terephthalate" (PET) which was followed by the creation of the first polyester fiber called Terylene. In 1942 ‘Super Glue’ (methyl cyanoacrylate) first discovered by Dr Harry Coover (working at Eastman Kodak).
Nylon is a generic name for a range of materials, all called nylon but distinguished by numerical suffixes, these were first developed in 1935 but only became a practical product in the 1940's. During World War Two nylon was developed to produce a range of materials, replacing silk and other goods in short supply. British Nylon Spinners Ltd, a joint venture of ICI and Courtaulds, was set up in 1940, ICI making the nylon and Courtalds spinning it into yarn. After the war ended they opened the Pontypool factory in South Wales as part of a government backed scheme to revitalise the economy after the decline of coal. Their head office was in Coventry and as well as the Pontypool yarn factory they had a presence in Bradford, Manchester and Glasgow (presumably where the cloth was made). The GWR and then British Railways transported large canisters of nylon filament in the 1950's, collecting them from the Pontypool factory and delivering to the spinners on heavy low-loading trailers pulled by four wheeled tractors. I have not been able to confirm the type of railway wagon used to transport these containers. British Nylon Spinners Ltd owned the trademark 'Bri Nylon', I believe they may have ceased trading in about 1964.
Fig ___ Nylon containers
XXX MORE INFO REQD
In the later 1940s 'Formica' melamine faced decorative laminates were introduced into the UK, ABS plastic (Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) was invented and the 12” long playing record made from polyvinyl chloride (pvc) was introduced. In 1949 came the first Airfix self-assembly model, made of polystyrene and 'high impact' polystyrene was introduced as a commercial plastic. Later that year 'Tupperware' (made from low density polyethylene) was produced in the USA and ‘Lycra’ (based on polyurethane) was invented by DuPont.
In the 1950s the polythene bag appeared, 'drip dry' fabrics were produced, Dow Chemicals began producing polystyrene foam and the UK began making high density polyethylene. In 1956 the Reliant Regal 111, the first commercially successful all glass-reinforced-plastic bodied car went on sale and a year later the plastic 'Hula Hoop' was produced by Knerr & Medlin of the Wham-O Toy Company. Lego began making clip-together building block in 1958 initially made of cellulose acetate they later changed to ABS and in 1959 the plastic 'Barbie Doll' was unveiled by Mattel at American International Toy Fair.
In the early 1960s water based acrylic paints appeared and the first silicone gel breast implants were pioneered. In 1963 the first ABS 'hard hats' were produced by the American Owned Royalite company in Scotland, one with a brim all round for outdoor work and one with a peak for miners (the latter has since become the standard for all workers in the UK). Kevlar was first produced in 1965 and the astronauts planted a nylon flag on the moon in 1969.
In 1970 the first Yellow HDPE (high-density polyethylene) pressure pipes for gas were introduced into UK by Wavin/British Gas and in 1973 polyethylene terephthalate beverage bottles were introduced. In 1977 Polyaryletheretherketone (PEEK) was first prepared by ICI, by this time plastics were the most widely used material on earth. In 1979 the first PVC-U double glazed windows were installed.
In 1980 the first Blue HDPE (high-density polyethylene) pressure pipes for domestic water supplies were introduced into UK, after which a lot of homes had their old lead pipes replaced. In 1982 the first artificial heart made mainly of polyurethane, was implanted in a human.
In 1983 ICI and Bayer launched PEEK, PPS (polyphenyene sulphide), and PES (polyether sulphone) and in 1987 BASF in Germany produces a polyacetylene that has twice the electrical conductivity of copper. In 1988 the triangular recycling symbols relating to plastics were introduced. In
1989 people at Cambridge University developed the first light-emitting polymers (poly-ethyne) and in 1990 ICI launched its 'Biopol', the first commercially available biodegradable plastic.
By the early 21st century a lot of work was being done on electrically conducting plastics and on 'nano technology' related plastics, the A380 Airbus uses largely fibre reinforced plastics in its wings and the Boeing 787 has an all plastic skin (about 50 percent of the aircraft is made of plastic).
The modern range of plastics are mainly derived from the products of oil and natural gas refineries, by far the most important ingredient is ethylene, which can also be produced from ethyl alcohol. Ethylene is a highly flammable gas shipped as a liquid, either compressed to very high pressures in steel cylinders or refrigerated down to -104 degrees centigrade in specialised ships. For bulk movement on land it can be partly refrigerated to keep the pressure within sensible limits and shipped in insulated pressure tanks. It forms the basis of most plastic solvents as well as most plastics in common use.
Plastics cover a very wide range of materials and applications, for example 'leathercloth' is a cloth fabric (usually cotton) which is coated with a plastic to resemble leather. In the 1920s three big firms merged (Nobel Industries, the explosives firm had a hand in this) and in the later 1920s this group was absorbed by ICI. The original companies were New Pegamoid Ltd., the British Pluviusin Co. Ltd. and the British Leathercloth Manufacturing Co. Ltd. The oldest of these companies, the British Leathercloth Manufacturing Co. Ltd., began making `Rexine' leathercloth at Hyde in 1899, this was cotton fabric coated with dyed nitro-cellulose. By 1950 the ICI Leathercloth Division has works at Runcorn and Coventry, its chief products were the original `Rexine' leathercloth and `Vynide' leathercloth in which ICI Plastics Division polyvinyl chloride was used in place of nitrocellulose. From leathercloth and other materials the Coventry works produced trimmings, draught excluders, pipings and beadings, principally for the motor-car and furniture industries.
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Plastics Manufacturers
The British Xylonite Company (BXL) and Casceloid
The first useful cellulose nitrate based material was invented by Alexander Parkes in the late 1850s, in the following decade he set up a business with a Daniel Spill to manufacture and market the stuff (which they called Parkesine) at a works in Homerton, in London's east end. The enterprise folded but Mr Spill continued development at his own cost and registered the 'Xylonite Company' in 1869 ('xyloidine' was the original scientific name for nitrated cellulose). Meanwhile another company set up in the UK to buy cellulose nitrate made by Xylonite Co and in 1877 a new combined company was formed, calling itself 'The British Xylonite Company', by the 1890s they had new and larger works in Brantham (Essex) and Hale End, London. Their main business was the manufacture of separate collars and cuffs for gentlemen's shirts. There was also a separate, although not entirely unconnected, American company called 'The American Zylonite Company', set up in early 1881. The British company did rather well, they made a range of goods from 'Xylonite', including toys. Other names for this material have been Xyloidin, Pyroxiline, Celluloid and of course cellulose nitrate. After the Second World War the company started making polythene, they were approached by 'Domestos' for a new joint project and from 1958 the company manufactured a polythene tube bottle with metal ends for the latter's new 'sqezy' washing up liquid, this was the first 'squeezy' bottle on the market. At the time the part of the business involved was 'BXL - Casceloid Division'.
Domestos was a 'garden shed' business set up in Newcastle in 1929, selling sodium hypochlorite (a bleaching agent purchased from ICI) in solution. This was sold door-to-door from hand carts and 'specially modified bicycles' (which were apparently powered by Domestos!)as an 'all purpose cleaner' and to 'sweeten' drains. At the outbreak of World War II stocks increased as the product was used as a treatment for burns. After 1952 Domestos was sold through retail outlets and was distributed nationally where the slogan "kills all known germs dead" was first coined. Domestos was acquired by Unilever in 1961, they now own and market the 'Sqezy' brand name.
There is no real 'railway' connection with either product, but I thought the bit about the bottle was interesting.
Endolithic Manufacturing Company, Crystalate Billiard Balls and the Crystalate Gramophone Record Company
A brief digression on billiard balls and musical recordings is required here - Billiard balls were originally made of metal or (more commonly) a hard wood, cheap clay (pottery) balls were used from the 18th century until the early 20th century and ivory was introduced in about the later 1790s. Ivory became the standard for tournament balls but is has a 'grain' so the red ball had to be stained but the stain was only shallow on the sides of the grain and the ball wore in use, producing a mottled appearance. The grain also absorbs moisture, changing the shape of the ball slightly as the humidity varies, and if dried out it cracks. In spite of these drawbacks ivory was considered the best material for most of the 19th century but became increasingly expensive as demand for it increased and the elephant population decreased. Ivory was brought to the UK as tusks, and although the most popular games at the time only required three or four balls roughly 12,000 elephants a year were being killed to meet the demand. Non-ivory cellulose nitrate billiard balls were first produced commercially by a Mr Hyatt in the USA as noted above, his Albany Billiard Ball Company began marketing the balls in the UK towards the end of the 19th century, under the name of 'Bonzoline'. These balls were compression mouldings, produced under very great pressure and then cured before turning, grinding and polishing. In 1901 a former Albany employee moved to the UK and set up with a local businessman to make similar cellulose nitrate billiard balls under the Crystalate brand, which were marketed by the Endolithic Manufacturing Company. In 1912 Endolithic and Albany came to an agreement whereby both Crystalate and Bonzoline balls would be manufactured at the Endolithic works at Tonbridge in Kent, after World War One a new company was set up, the Composition Billiard Ball Supply Company Limited, and both balls were thereafter made at Stratford in London.
Fig ___ Crystalate coal wagon
Take up was initially slow, a publicity stunt or two popularised the 'Crystalate Composition Ball' but it was 1928 before a championship was played with composition balls and it was several years after that before the ivory balls ceased to be manufactured. The only problem with the new composition balls was their tendency to explode if hit particularly hard, but the Germans had been secretly working on a new approach. The German idea was to use a phenol formaldehyde resin base cast in a glass sphere, which was then broken away to release the ball. When the Nazis came to power in Germany the Jewish inventor escaped to England and worked with the Composition Billiard Ball Supply Company Limited to produce this new type under the brand name 'Vitalite'. The close ties with the Albany company saw the technology transferred to America. Meanwhile the old cellulose nitrate balls continued in production as they were heavier than the Vitalite balls and some people preferred them. The British Crystalate type were replaced in the early 1970s by the modern Super Crystalate acrylic balls but the Belgians had meanwhile developed a heavyweight version of the Crystalate ball, which is still sold today.
Going back a bit however Edison was producing cylinder recordings based on hard rubber and cellulose nitrate, the cylinder had grooves on the surface, the grooves 'wobbled' and a needle running in them could operate a diaphragm to 'play back' the recording. A German chap called Berliner (from Hamburg) moved to America and developed the flat disc record using a base of shellac (a secretion of the Indian Lac insect) in 1888. The discs were made up of about 30 percent shellac, with some china clay, a little barium or baryte, some asphalt, cotton flock and color pigments (usually carbon black, or soot). The moulding technology mastered at the Crystalate works allowed them to produce the first British 'records' using this system. In 1908 they set up the Crystalate Gramophone Record Company of Tonbridge, Kent and began pressing gramophone records using the Berliner process. By the 1920s everyone had adopted the disc format and standardised on 78 r.p.m. playback speed (disks were originally in 5 inch diameter but later they varied from five to ten inches). This enterprise was a great success and the company was absorbed by Decca in 1937, later absorbed by Polygram (owned by the Dutch firm Phillips). It is perhaps worth noting that the early players were hand cranked, clockwork had become the norm around the time of the First World War and the first British made electric gramophone was introduced by HMV in 1927 but this was very expensive and required an electricity supply. Vinyl records appeared in the 1940s when the US government wanted to produce more robust records for sending out to the troops overseas, at the time they were known as V Records and were touted as 'unbreakable'. They were released commercially in 1948 and within a year or so there were companies building booths in which you could make a recording to send off in the post. In 1947 two forms of record were invented that held more music than the standard 78 r.p.m. type, one using 45 revolutions per minute the other using 33 r.p.m. These gave considerably longer recordings than the then standard 78 r.p.m., the 45 r.p.m. standard (originally called the Extended Play or EP) failed to catch on at first but was later used for small records with only a single piece of popular music on each side, the larger 33 r.p.m. discs with more tracks were known as Long Playing records, more commonly known as 'albums'). There were few players available for these new formats and it was 1950 before Decca released the first 33 r.p.m. 'long playing' (LP) records in the UK (as part of the 21st anniversary celebrations), these could play music for 20 to 30 minutes per side. The 45 r.p.m. records did not appear in Britain until 1954 but the rapidly caught on amongst youngsters, the standard was to have one track on each side of a seven inch disc and these were soon known as 'singles'.
British Cellophane Limited
This company, a joint venture between Courtalds and a French company, was formed in 1937 based at Bridgewater in Somerset. This firm owned the trade mark 'Cellophane', the commercial cellulose film. Their works at Bridewater was beside a railway line and had a rail connection into the works. The Bridgewater works continued in production, expanding in to polythene films after the war but the rail connection was abandoned in the mid 1990s after the ending of Speedlink freight services. The company was bought out in the mid 1990s and this works closed in 2005. The company opened a second works in Barrow in Furness Lancashire was opened in the mid 1950s and was closed in the mid 1990s. Railway traffic to the works would include caustic soda tanks, I believe some of these tank wagons were also of the 'hutched' type mentioned above. Caustic soda is also supplied as white pellets in 10 lb cans but I suspect the liquid form would be preferable for this process. The buildings at Bridgewater were standard 1930s concrete with metal framed windows and there was a rather tall chimney close by the railway line.
The bulk of the cellophane used in the UK had hitherto been imported, although a small rayon works at Wigton in Cumbria was converted to cellophane production in about 1932, trading as British New Wrap Co Ltd, regarding which I know nothing.
Imperial Chemical Industries
In the UK ICI Plastics was a major, though not dominant, force. ICI got into plastics partly through some of its existing interests (notably the production of leathercloth using nitrocellulose) and in 1933 they acquired a majority shareholding in Croydon Mouldrite Ltd., producers of phenol formaldehyde resins and moulding powders. As Croydon Mouldrite Ltd. had recently taken over the business of Kelacoma Ltd., a small firm starting to manufacture urea formaldehyde at Welwyn Garden City, the name was changed to Mouldrite Ltd. The first plant for the manufacture of methyl methacrylate ('Perspex') was built at ICI Billingham in 1934. In 1936 I.C.I. acquired the remaining shares of Mouldrite Ltd. and thereafter grouped under this company the whole of I.C.I.'s interests in plastics. The name was changed in September 1938 to I.C.I. (Plastics) Ltd., and in the later 1940s to the Plastics Division of I.C.I.
By 1950 ICI plastics Division was operating plants at Billingham (Co. Durham), Hillhouse, Thornton (Lancashire), Darwen (Lancashire), Wandsworth (London), Welwyn Garden City (Hertfordshire) and Wilton (Yorkshire). This company, at that time, produced the widest range of plastics of any company in the world, mostly based on phenol and urea formaldehyde products, but also included a range of acrylics, including the Perspex mentioned above, and `Diakon' moulding powder and the `Kallodent' and `Kallodoc' range of dental materials. They obtained the British manufacturing rights for Nylon (invented by DuPont in America) and set up British Nylon Spinners Ltd (makers of 'Bri Nylon') in conjunction with Courtaulds in 1940. ICI made the nylon polymer at their Billingham plant and Courtaulds spun it into yarn in Coventry. Immediately after the war the spinning side of the business was transferred to a new spinning plant at Pontypool in Monmouthshire for the production of the yarn (this factory was government sponsored to help provide jobs due to the closure of several coal mines). After World War Two they also produced 'Terylene' yarn at Hillhouse (again working with Courtauld's). They had invented polythene, which they sold under their brand name of `Alkathene' and plastics based on vinyl chloride polymers (PVC) and co-polymers.
The British Cyanides Company Limited and the subsequent BIP Chemicals Ltd, Oldbury.
See also British Cyanides Company Limited discussed under chemicals manufacturers above. British Cyanides Co Ltd was formed in about 1880 as a joint venture by Albright and Wilson and Chance and Hunt to exploit a new process for extracting gold from low-grade ore, from which you produce a range of cyanide compounds. After the First World War they tried using sulpho-cyanide to make thiourea for use in silk and tafeta but those materials went out of fashion in the later 1920s however they had patented their method for making urea-formaldehyde resins during 1924, with which they produced 'moulding powders' (powder mixed with the resin, an early form of plastics). To make the resins they condensed thiourea with formaldehyde to produce water-white resins. They By 1930 they were marketing their resins under the name Beetle Products of Oldbury and during the following decade produced a range of resins with all sorts of uses including adding 'wet strength' to paper towels and as a coating on all manner of goods. During this period the name British Industrial Plastics was commonly used and the firm developed the first practical adhesives for making plywood. These glues allowed the building of the Mosquito aircraft in World War Two as well as gliders and small power craft for the Royal Navy. After the war they continued to grow as British Industrial Products but in 1961 they were purchased by Turner and Newall (who made goods for the building industry, see also 'Lineside Industries - Industries associated with docks - Asbestos related industries' for details on this firm).
Under Turner and Newall the name changed at some point to BIP (Oldbury) Limited , the company is a world leader in the supply of thermoset plastics and chemicals with manufacturing and distributors now located worldwide. The company now forms part of the Tennants Consolidated Ltd group (discussed above under chemical manufacturers). BIP has evolved into what it describes as 'a technology innovator delivering class leading thermoset moulding materials, amino and etherification chemistry, polyurethanes and many industrial chemicals'. In 1993 the company restructured to form two companies to reflect the different aspects of its business; BIP Plastics Ltd comprised the three moulding material businesses of Amino Moulding Powders, Polyester Moulding Compounds and Engineering Thermo-plastics. BIP Speciality Resins dealt with the whole of the resins business.
The Oldbury site was rail connected and boasted a works loco or two, I do not know of any BIP branded rolling stock but given their involvement in urea-formaldehyde resins this site, which is rail connected, would be a likely destination for the BR operated demountable tanks. The internal works rail system was closed in 1971, I am not sure if this included the access for main line stock to the works sidings.
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