History
The first acrylic acid was created in 1843. Methacrylic acid, derived from acrylic acid, was formulated in 1865. The reaction between methacrylic acid and methanol results in the ester methyl methacrylate. The German chemists Fittig and Paul discovered in 1877 the polymerization process that turns methyl methacrylate into polymethyl methacrylate. In 1933 the German chemist Otto Röhm patented and registered the brand name PLEXIGLAS. In 1936 the first commercially viable production of acrylic safety glass began. During World War II acrylic glass was used for submarine periscopes, windshields, canopies, and gun turrets for airplanes.
Read more about this topic: Poly(methyl Methacrylate)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If usually the “present age” is no very long time, still, at our pleasure, or in the service of some such unity of meaning as the history of civilization, or the study of geology, may suggest, we may conceive the present as extending over many centuries, or over a hundred thousand years.”
—Josiah Royce (1855–1916)
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)