Engineered Stability: The History of Composite Materials in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Foreword
Preface
Preface to the English Edition
Acknowledgements
Contents
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction
	1.1 Content of This Study and Guiding Questions
	1.2 Temporal and Spatial Scope
	1.3 State of the Art in Research
	1.4 Overview of Important Primary and Secondary Sources
	1.5 Methodology
		1.5.1 Network Analysis of Primary and Secondary Sources
		1.5.2 Stoffgeschichte and Product-Line Analysis
		1.5.3 Material Culture (Studies)
		1.5.4 Biographical Facets, Institutional and Corporate History
		1.5.5 Eyewitness Interviews
		1.5.6 My Own Methodological Approach—Typology
	1.6 Structure of the Work
	1.7 Terms and Definitions of Composite Materials
	1.8 Terminology—Material Versus Hybrid Material
2 Early Composites
	2.1 Unique Piece from the Stone Age
	2.2 First Reproducible Composite Materials—Fibre-Reinforced Bricks
	2.3 First Weapons—Composite Bows
	2.4 Papier-Mâché—Composite Material from the Middle Ages
3 The Development of Composite Materials Within the Context of 19th-Century Industrialization
	3.1 The Plastic Masses Versus Presstoff
		3.1.1 Materials Design of the Plastic Masses
		3.1.2 The Development of Vulcanized Fibre, an Early Laminate Around 1850
	3.2 Wood as a Fibre Composite and the Development of Industrially Manufactured Wooden Composites
		3.2.1 Veneer Wood Versus Plywood
		3.2.2 Fibreboard and Chipboard
	3.3 Machine Elements—Early Designs with Hybrid Materials
		3.3.1 Early Presstoff and Layered Materials From the 1880s to the Turn of the Century
4 Composites in 20th-Century Polymer Chemistry
	4.1 Between Aesthetics and Functionality—Bakelite, The First Years Until 1930
		4.1.1 Bakelite “A-Wing”
		4.1.2 “Old” Materials in Early Lightweight Designs the Productive 1920s
	4.2 A High-Performance Material Matrix From Polymer Chemistry in the Early 1920s
		4.2.1 “Engineered Stability”—Layered Presstoff, a Modern Fibre Composite
		4.2.2 Machine Elements as “Fibre-Composite Pioneers”—the Development Between 1925 and 1945
		4.2.3 First German Presstoff Plain-Bearings Research in Darmstadt and Dresden
	4.3 Römmler AG Versus Dynamit Nobel AG
		4.3.1 Presstoff, an Emancipated “Substitute Material”?
		4.3.2 Top-Secret Order on “Presstoff”—Compressed Thermoplastic in Armaments Research and Production in the 1930s and 1940s
	4.4 Between Professional and Political Ambivalence—Fibre Research from 1920 to 1945
		4.4.1 Friedrich Tobler—Botanist, Fibre Researcher, Raw Materials Expert
		4.4.2 Institute of Materials Research at the DVL—New Materials and Conventional Knowledge—Researches Between 1930 and 1945
		4.4.3 Fibre Research—The Institute of Materials Research at the DVL and the Graf Zeppelin Research Institute
	4.5 Aviation Case Study I: Fibre-Aligned Wood Construction. Developing an Aircraft that Never Flew—The Hütter Hü 211
		4.5.1 Preamble to the Reconnaissance Aeroplane Hütter Hü 211
		4.5.2 Fibre-Aligned Lightweight Wood Construction and Conventional Moulded-Wood Production
		4.5.3 Testing of Construction Methods and Materials to Underpin Design Specifications
		4.5.4 Moulded Wood Versus Shell Fabrication
		4.5.5 Foreign and Forced Labour for the Hü 211
	4.6 Aviation Case Study II: New Load Horizons for Aircraft—the Horton Brothers’ Fibre-Composite Flying Wing from 1935
		4.6.1 Introduction
		4.6.2 The Horten Brothers
		4.6.3 The Horten Flying Wing Model H V-a Made of Layered Presstoff
		4.6.4 The “Composite” Flying Wing IX V2/V3 by the Horten Brothers
		4.6.5 Composite Materials and Their Applications in Foreign Design
5 Development of Hybrid Material Systems in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century
	5.1 The Bridge to the Future—Glass-Fibre-Reinforced Plastic and the Akafliegs
	5.2 New Load Horizons from “Black Gold”—Early 1970
		5.2.1 Student Involvement Leads to Serially Produced CFRP
		5.2.2 A New “Era in Materials Engineering” for Civil Aviation
	5.3 Research with Limited Prospects—GDR Composite Materials Development, 1954 to 1980
		5.3.1 The “Reinvention” of Lightweight Design
		5.3.2 From Garland to Lightweight “Honeycomb” in Aviation
		5.3.3 Composite Materials Development Compared—FRG and GDR
	5.4 Beast of Burden for the Ether—The SOFIA Project, 1985 to 2009
		5.4.1 First Steps and Historical Obstacles
		5.4.2 “Black” Decision and New Ways Along Old Paths
		5.4.3 The “Black-Frame” View into the Past and Future
	5.5 Hybrid Materials with Other Matrices and Reinforcing Materials
6 Conclusion
Appendix
List of Sources
References
Name Index
Index