Acrylic glass, or Perspex® under its commonly used trade name, is a transparent material that has been found to have many advantages over traditional glass. It is a polymer of methyl methacrylate, a simple organic compound, and is called by a number of monikers, including plexiglass, acrylic, and, properly, poly (methyl 2-methylpropenoate). It is a simple polymer, formed from chains of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
Despite its simplicity, Perspex® is a versatile material. Durable, yet easily molded, it found early use as a safe alternative to glass, with particular utility during World War II in Spitfire canopies, and later in visors and shields. At about half the weight of glass, but seventeen times its strength under constant load, Perspex® is also useful in aquariums, skylights, and anywhere else a transparent material under pressure is required. Medical uses include contact lenses, dentures, and bone cement. Furthermore, when suspended in water, it forms acrylic paint.
The material was first produced by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), thanks to the work of two of its employees. Rowland Hill first described the polymer in 1931 and filed a patent for its preparation and that of the monomer. Meanwhile, John Crawford, working in ICI's explosives group in Scotland, was experimenting with synthetic materials for use in safety glass and found his ideal solution in Hill's polymer. Crawford's contribution was to find an economic way to synthesize the precursor, 2-methylpropenoate.
Over the next couple of years, ICI investigated ways to produce the material on an industrial scale. The first transparent sheet was produced in 1933 and the trade name Perspex® was born in 1934. Today, if you are indoors, you are unlikely to be far away from Perspex® object, so numerous are its applications.
