__1911: __ Nathaniel Convers Wyeth is born. He'll become a mechanical engineer and the inventor of the plastic beverage bottle.
Have you ever wished you could own a Wyeth? Truth is, you've probably owned many, and thrown out -- or better yet, recycled --- most of them. And it's not just a coincidence of sharing the last name. Nathaniel was the son of artist and illustrator N.C. Wyeth, the brother of artists Andrew Wyeth, Carolyn Wyeth and Henriette Wyeth Hurd, father of drummer-pianist Howie Wyeth, and uncle of artists Jamie Wyeth and Michael Hurd.
Nathaniel's original first name was Newell (same as his father), but was changed at age 10 after the youngster showed an interest in science and engineering: Ice-plow inventor Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth was an ancestral uncle. Some family, eh?
Nathaniel had been a DuPont engineer since 1936, when he began work in 1967 on producing a lightweight plastic bottle that wouldn't chemically contaminate its contents, or split under the high pressure of carbonated beverages. He invented a process called "stretch blow molding" that uses biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (aka DuPont Mylar).
The new PET bottle was light, strong, flexible, and had uniform wall thickness that could withstand pressure of more than 100 pounds per square inch. It also met Food & Drug Administration standards for purity. The PET bottle received U.S. patent 3,733,309 on May 15, 1973.
Wyeth also made a couple of dozen other commercial inventions during his career. He was inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame in 1986.
But the PET beverage bottle is probably his most prolific achievement. They're everywhere -- including lots of places we don't want them, like our oceans. Starting from zero in the mid-1970s, now over 400 billion PET bottles (400 gigabottles, if you like) are manufactured each year around the globe.
PET can be recycled, and it is. In Europe, almost half of it is recycled, and the U.S. rate (.pdf) has risen to about 30 percent. Recycled PET can be turned into carpets, backing for carpets and upholstery, other fibers, sheets and films (.pdf), and -- increasingly -- more bottles.
So, make sure that plastic bottle goes into the recycling bin. It's far too valuable to throw away. After all, it's a Wyeth.
Source: Various
Image: ntr23/Flickr
