Plastics in the chemical age

The plastics industry is typical of the industries that have developed in recent years as a result of chemical research. The chemist is a key man in the plastics industry, and it is from chemical laboratories that new plastics are appearing almost day by day.

Little more than twenty years ago, p1astics were still widely regarded as cheap substitutes for traditional materials such as wood and porcelain. Today plastics have established themselves as wonderful new materials in their own right. They have ousted older materials because they can do a better job, often at lower cost.

We find new plastics encroaching in the fields where metals have reigned supreme. The development of new techniques, such as lamination, has shown how modern p1asties may be used for many engineering and structural applications. We can make gears and bearings for heavy machinery from laminated plastics. We can build car bodies, and the hulls of boats; we can pump our water supplier through plastic pipes, and support large buildings on plastic beams.

In time we shall have seagoing ships with plastics used for almost everything from the crockery on the tables to the hull itself. We shall fly at supersonic speeds in plastic aircraft, and motor in cars with plastic bodies. Houses and public buildings will be constructed from plastics panels supported by plastic beams. We shall find plastic spaceships carrying us to the moon.

As the demand for plastics grows, the need for chemical raw materials will increase. Plastics are largely organic chemicals, in which the “backbone” of the molecule consists of carbon atoms. They are made from simpler organic chemicals in which the molecules contain fewer carbon atoms, which are manipulated by the plastics chemist into thread-like structures.

Today, we draw our supplies of simple organic chemicals very largely from coal and petroleum. These are the chemical residues of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago, and they contain a variety of different organic substances. We obtain simple chemical raw materials from coal by heating it in retorts, and from petroleum by refining and processing techniques. Coal and petroleum are capital assets; the world has a limited supply, and we cannot replace the material we use. As the demand for organic chemicals increases, the stocks of coal and petroleum will diminish; and some day, they will be gone.

Before this happens, we shall have to seek new sources of organic chemical raw materials, and we shall find them in the carbon dioxide of the air. This is the gas from which the growing plant builds up the sugar and other substances as organic raw materials, without waiting for nature to turn them into coal and oil.

It seems likely that alcohol will become the most important chemical raw material of all as supplies of coal and petroleum dwindle. We can make alcohol by fermentation of the sugars produced by fast-growing plants, and it will provide us with the raw materials for plastics and other synthetic chemical industries. The tropical countries of the world will use their vast areas of land for the cultivation of sugar-producing crops.

It is probable, too, that we shall in time discover the secrets of photosynthesis, by which the plant uses sunshine to convert carbon dioxide into sugars and we shall use some synthetic process of this sort to turn carbon dioxide from the air into simple organic chemicals without depending entirely upon the growing plant to do it for us.

This century is the time when man began to understand how to make all the new synthetic materials from simple chemicals; materials, such as fibres and rubbers, synthetic drugs and dyes, insecticides and weed killers, hormones and vitamins — and, of course plastics.

3. Divide the text into some logical parts and entitle them.

4. Translate the following sentences into English using lexical material of the text:

1. Разработка слоистых пластмасс показала, что они могут использоваться для многих технических и строительных целей.

2. Мы можем строить автомобили и каркасы лодок из пластмасс.

3. Полагают, что в недалеком будущем мы сможем строить самолеты из пластмасс.

4. В настоящее время, как известно, сырьем для получения пластмасс являются простые органические химические вещества из угля и нефти.

5. Так как мы имеем ограниченные запасы угля и нефти, то нам придется искать новые источники органического химического сырья. Таким источником явится, вероятно, углекислый газ.

6. Возможно, что спирт станет одним из самых важных видов химического сырья.

7. Возможно, что нам удастся открыть секреты фотосинтеза, для того чтобы солнечный свет превращал двуокись углерода в сахар.

Text C

1. Pay attention to the following words and word combinations:

marketability – товарность, пригодность для продажи;

«brushability» – пригодность для работы кистью:

brush marks – мазки, следы кисти;

adequately – соответствующим образом, равномерно;

similarly – аналогично;

rheology – реология;

conventional – обычный;

shear – отслаивать, лишать чего-либо;

«drilling muds» – бурильная смазка (шлам);

to lubricate – смазывать;

drill bit – бурильное сверло:

rock chips – осколки породы;

oil well – нефтяная скважина;

at rest – в состоянии покоя;

foodstuffs – пищевые продукты;

in respect to – относительно.

2. Read the text and be ready to say if the following statements are true or false. Use the following phrases:

I think it’s right.

It seems to be wrong.

I can’t agree with it.

As far as I know …

To my mind

On the contrary

1. If the paint is too thin it will adequately cover a surface.

2. The art of paper coating is dependent on the rheology of the coating material.

3. The petroleum industry uses small quantities of “drilling muds”.

4. Muds should exhibit viscosity under shearing.

5. Most foodstuffs are non-newtonian in behaviour.

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