Page 40 - January1948

38 NATIONAL BUTTON BULLETIN

The most important wartime application was in the field of aviation,
where its light weight, excellent transparency, weather and shatter-resistance,
dictated its use in forming enclosures, noses and turrets for every major type
of combat aircraft. Now, in peacetine, its applications are manifold.
.{ Yelsatile r\Iatelial
"Lucite" readily lends itself to mass production techniques. It can be
niolded rapidly in existing injection, compression oI extrusion machinery,
aud large volume output can be obtained quickly and econonically with a
minimum of finishing operat-ions after molding. Machining too, is easy, for
"Lucite" can be sawed, drilled, polished, and otherwise fabricated with
tools like those used in working wood. It can be cemented to wood, metal,
or other plastics-or to itself. Forming is readily accomplished at terrpera-
tures from 220 degrees Fahrenheit to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. This ease
of fabrication, plus the sparkling beauty of "Lucite" also accounts for its
use in many personal accessories.
Notwithstanding the wide variety of consumer applications, this plastic
finds perhaps its greatest functional use in the industrial rnarket. For it is
here that its transparency, strength, toughness and resistance to chemicals,
and its light weight and ease of fabrication and molding are required. Here
utility is sought rather than beauty.
In beautifying consumer products, in improving industrial equipment,
"Lucite" has served well during the past decade. As fabricators and molders
become more familiar with proper techniques and design, this plastic will
continue to offer greater opportunities for product improvement through its
versatile, workable properties.
This informative article was contributed for this issue by B. Blumenthal
& Co., Inc., whose president, Mr. Paul Helhnan is a life member of our
organization. Among other things loaned by this Company for our Indian-
apolis Show, were two trays of examples of this product, "Lucite." One
tray showed the rods, and blanks cut from the lod, then turned and polished.
Other examples on this tray were metal trimmed, hand carved and painted.
Another tray showed a sheet of "Lucite" from which twenty-four buttons
had been cut. This showed the first blank cut out, then shaped and polished,
also blanks with hand carved and hand drilled holes. Several examples were
hand painted. A group of four very beautiful molded "Lucite" buttons
rvere included in this tray.

CINNABAR

lVe have had a numbel' of questions conle in about cinnabar buttons.
Almost all of thern have fallen into two categories and have wanted to
kuow either (1) Should genuine cinnabar have a wooden or a netal base,
and ( 2 ) Is all cinnabar red and if so, what about those buttons known as
green cinnabar, white cinnabar and so on?
One of the first things we notice in looking over a group of cinnabar
buttons is that in some specimens the button is made of wood, while others
quite similar in pattern are on metal bodies. Naturally the question arises,
"Are the genuine ones on wood or on metal? Which ones are right?" The
fact is both are genuine and neither is more authentic than the other.
Iu this respect they are like lacquered buttons, some of which are made
of tin, some of brass, some of papier mache but all are lacquered. As a
ulatter of fact this comparison is a true parallel for the liquid ingredient in
the cinnabar button is raw lac. The ingredient for which the compound is
nnrned, that is cinnabar, is the pigment. Cinnabar is a vermillion colored
nrineral which has been used from very early times as a pigrnent. The
raw lac and ground cinnabar are fixed to fornr the coating that distinguishes
cinnabar buttons from all others.