Word: plastic
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...revealing request was for a detector to locate "nonmetallic land mines." This would indicate that the Axis has developed mines, probably made of plastic, that escape detection by magnetic locators...
...Barretts of Wimpole Street have enamel bathtubs? Did Dr. Johnson ever use a flush toilet or have any idea of a sanitary latrine? Did Charles Dickens ever hear a radio? Did Goethe ever handle a camera? . . . Did Charles Lamb ever see Ginger Rogers or use a plastic toothbrush? Did Wordsworth ever cross in the Hudson Tunnel or drive on the Merritt Parkway? . . . Why must we be the mirror to the universe? Where are the standards? The invalid assumptions must fall away, and some common standard for all humanity must be rediscovered...
...Pont is cooking up surprises in nylon. So far nylon has been used mainly as a fiber - for stockings, toothbrushes, parachutes, aircraft tire cords, surgical sutures. But nylon is also a plastic of parts. Last week Du Pont reported some recent experiments with nylon as a solid plastic which would seem to indicate that after the war it may become almost as common and versatile an article as glass...
Nylon will have many plastic competitors. But it combines advantages of the two general types of plastics: as a thermoplastic it can be resoftened and reworked, but like thermosetting plastics, it is relatively resistant to heat. Its softening point is 450°F. (most thermoplastics melt at about 160°F.). Nylon is also exceedingly light and tough, easily machined, impervious to oil, grease and the action of most solvents...
...Heavyweights. Most favored grasshopper is called the L4, a military adaptation of the ubiquitous Piper Cub with the cockpit enclosed in plastic. The observer rides backwards to watch for planes attacking from the rear. His other jobs: 1) operating the radio; 2) keeping his weight down to 170 (to shorten take-offs); 3) studying targets and fire with naked eye (the grasshopper jiggles too much for field glasses). The L-4 cruises at 70 m.p.h., is powered by a 65-h.p. engine - far less than artillery pilots would like for a quick take-off and climb. Eventually helicopters may supplant...