It comes as a surprise to most people that plastics should have a history worth recording. We have grown so used to the synthetic materials that surround us in everyday life that it is difficult to disassociate them from the twentieth century. Early natural plastics were known and used by the ancient Egyptians and Chinese, but it was in the mid nineteenth century that they became a commercial reality, culminating in the patenting of the first truly synthetic plastic, Bakelite, in 1907. This book traces the development of plastics from their natural origins, through semi-synthetic moulding materials such as celluloid, up to the ealiest synthetics. There is a brief guide to identifying and looking after plastics, and a list of collections of historical plastics. The chemical derivation of polymers is described and a simple glossary and a guide to the basic processes are included.