well as tailor them for specific uses.4
             Fourteen years after the macromolecular theory was put forth E.W. Fawcett, R.O. Gibson, and co-workers polymerized Low-density polyethylene for the first time. Low-density polyethylene, commonly called LDPE, currently ranks the first in plastic production, and began commercial production in 1939.5 Fawcett, Gibson, and their research team first polymerized ethylene in Britain at Imperial Chemical Industries after high-pressure technology was developed.
             In 1935 Wallace Carothers headed a research team at Du Pont. The knowledge gained about plastic synthesis by this team in 1935 later proved to be invaluable in the development of other polymers. All of this knowledge and information was gathered after they polymerized Nylon. Nylon was originally intended for fiber use, and is often used in the making of other plastics. When used for mechanical purposes, like gears, it is efficient as well as quiet, and runs without the use of any oil. These Nylon mechanical gears often replace those made of metal because their smooth, waxy textured properties can be put to better use.6
             In 1938 Du Pont added to the plastic frontier again. Roy Plunkett and Jack Rebok filled several small cylinders with tetrafluoroethylene gas, and the next morning noticed a white powder in one of the cylinders. This white, waxy powder was Teflon, which is more stable than the tetrafluoroethylene gas it was derived from. This is because Teflon is composed entirely of single bonds, where the tetrafluoroethylene gas has several double bonds. Full scale production of polytetrafluoroethylene, or Teflon, began in 1948.7
             In the early 1950s Karl Zeigler, of the Max Planck Institute in West Germany, developed organometallic catalysts for producing a high-density polyethylene, HDPE, at low pressures. High-density polyethylene is harder and more rigid than Low-density polyethylene. HDPE was first used in the producti...