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May 11, 1500
First Known Polymer
British explorers discover the ancient Mayan civilization in Central America. The Mayans are assumed to be among the first to find an application for polymers; as their children were fond of playing with balls made of rubber trees -
X-ray Crystallography
In 1907, an x-ray crystallography is invented as a method of analyzing crystal structures. Then, eight years later, the method is used by M.Polanyi to discover the chemical use of cellulose. It established the fact that polymer unit cells contain sections of long chains molecules instead of small molecule species -
Vinyl- Chloride
Large scale production of Vinyl-Chloride begins. It is still used today -
Ekonol
James Economy develops one of the pioneer high temperature polymers (Ekonol). This polymeric material paved the way for the development of liquid crystal polymers one year later. -
Polymer/Plastics Industry
The polymer/plastics industry outstripped steel as the nations biggest used material per unit volume .