Plastics in arms and armour in the Royal Armouries collection

Abstract

Problems with a few of the early plastics within the Royal Armouries collections recently revealed that this area was little researched and that more detailed work was needed. The purpose of this paper is to look at the range of semi-synthetic and synthetic plastics in the collection and present some of our preliminary findings. It will consider their varied uses before looking at some of the problems that have been encountered. It will not be covering natural plastics such as rubber, gutta percha, etc. Our initial survey revealed that there are approximately 500 objects which have a synthetic plastic component, dating from the late 1870s to present day, of which over half are connected with firearms.