"Plastic made from milk" —that certainly sounds like something made-up. If you agree, you may be surprised to learn that in the early 20th century, milk was used to make many different plastic ornaments —including jewelry for Queen Mary of England!
Plastic from milk ~ Casein Plastic ~ Galalith
What is it Galalith?
Galalith (Erinoid in the United Kingdom) is a synthetic plastic material manufactured by the interaction of casein and formaldehyde. Given a commercial name derived from the Greek words gala (milk) and lithos (stone), it is odourless, insoluble in water, biodegradable, antiallergenic, antistatic and virtually nonflammable.
What is Casein?
Casein is the name for a family of related phosphoproteins. These proteins are commonly found in mammalian milk, making up 80% of the proteins in cow's milk and between 20% and 45% of the proteins in human milk. Casein has a wide variety of uses, from being a major component of cheese, to use as a food additive, to a binder for safety matches. As a food source, casein supplies amino acids, carbohydrates, and two essential elements, calcium and phosphorus.
History
The product was introduced under the trade name Galalith and was first shown at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1900. It's starting material being the protein in cows milk, precipitated by the action of the enzyme rennin. A lot of development work was still required to produce a stable material, and the two companies merged in 1904 to form the International Galalith Gesellschaft Hoff and Company with a new factory in Harburg. A process starting with dried casein granules, known as the dry process, was developed and this was to become the universally adopted method for casein plastics manufacture and remained virtually unchanged throughout its history.
Discovery
Adolf Spitteler discovered galalith because he kept a cat on his lab. His cat accidentally broke formaldehyde bottle and the contain fluid came across with the food of the ca, milk. So when Spitteler returned the next day at the lab instead of milk he found a polymer in a shape of a horn. Formaldehyde caused the polymerization of casein, the protein of milk.
Uses
This new plastic was presented at Paris Universal Exhibition in 1900. In France, Galalith was distributed by the Compagnie Française de Galalithelocated near Paris in Levallois-Perret. As a result, the Jura area became the first one to use the material.
Marketed in the form of boards, pipes and rods, in 1913 thirty million litres (eight million US gallons) of milk were used to produce Galalith in Germany alone. In 1914, Syrolit Ltd gained the license for manufacture in the United Kingdom. Renaming itself Erinoid Ltd, it started manufacture in the Lightpill former woollen mill in Dudbridge, Stroud, Gloucestershire.
Galalith could produce gemstone imitations that looked strikingly real. In 1926 Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel published a picture of a short, simple black dress in Vogue. It was calf-length, straight, and decorated only by a few diagonal lines. Vogue called it "Chanel’s Ford,” as like the Model T, the little black dress was simple and accessible for women of all social classes. To accessorize the little black dress, Chanel revamped her designs, thus facilitating the breakthrough and mass popularity of costume jewelry. Galalith was used for striking Art Deco jewelry designs by artists such as Jacob Bengel and Auguste Bonaz, as well as for hair combs and accessories. By the 1930s, Galalith was also used for pens, umbrella handles, white piano keys (replacing natural ivory), and electrical goods with world production at that time reaching 10,000 tons. Knitting needles were another common use.
Today
Although Galalith was historically cheap, the fact it could not be moulded led to its demise by commercial end users. Production slowed as the restrictions of World War II led to a need for milk as a food, and niched due to new oil-derived wartime plastic developments. Production continued in Brazil until the 1960s.
Nowadays "Galalith" still continues to be produced in Italy, in the shape of sheets, blanks and rods, mainly for buttons and fashion accessories companies.
Limitation
One limitation on the uses of Galalith was that when made into items above a certain size it tended to splinter or warp.
References: news.in.gr ~ wikipedia.org ~ plastiquarian.com
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