Albany /ËÃ¦lbÉni/ is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. Albany is the oldest permanently settled town in Western Australia, predating Perth and Fremantle by over two years. At June 2015, Albany's estimated urban population was 33,970, making it the state's sixth-largest population centre.
Plastics History. Before the invention of plastic, the only substances that could be molded were clays (pottery) and glass. Hardened clay and glass were used for storage, but they were heavy and brittle.Some natural substances, like tree gums and rubber, were sticky and moldable. Bakelite telephone in 100 Years of Plastic at the Science Museum in London in 2007. The exhibition was a celebration of plastics timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Leo Baekeland's invention of Bakelite.
Plastics are derived from organic products. The materials used in the production of plastics are natural products such as cellulose, coal, natural gas, salt and, of course, crude oil. Crude oil is a complex mixture of thousands of compounds. To become useful, it must be processed. The production of plastic begins with a distillation process in an oil refinery. The distillation process involves the separation of heavy crude oil into lighter groups called fractions. Each fraction is a mixture of hydrocarbon chains (chemical compounds made up of carbon and hydrogen), which differ in terms of the size and structure of their molecules.