Plastic in bill (m43)?!

[Dmv]

Has anyone ever encountered plastic inside the bill of m43 caps? (used as the stiffener)

I have a RAD winter cap (mid-late war) that has white plastic, about 2 mm thick and a bit bendable, inside the bill.
I tried to capture it in the photo's. See where the moth holes show the white underneath.
If you take the bill between two fingers and rub it, it also feels very smooth.

I do believe the cap is ok, but was very surprised to find the plastic!

[Dmv]

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[Dmv]

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[Dmv]

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[BenVK]

It's not plastic as we would call it in this day an age.

It's probably a celluloid based material which German manufacturers were producing long before WWII.

[Dmv]

Thank you Ben, yes plastic is probably the wrong term and I do know the Germans used it (I have the book "Kunststoffe), however didn't knew it was on the inside of bills of hats! Did you encounter it before?

[Glenn McInnes]

I have seen it on a few original M43's (and upgraded M42's) thought it could have been some sort of vulkanfiber.









Glenn

[djpool]

The Germans worked with a variety of materials. Heres a list of the major projects they manufactured combs from. Many of the same materials could have been used to make stiffeners etc:

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:RelyOnVML/> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <text>The following materials and factories were mentioned in the Intelligence report on Combs. Obviously other materials and factories were involved in the manufacture of Combs.

<indnt>a. Vulcanite is a hard rubber produced by vulcanization. Various qualities of rubber to include Buna were used to manufacture combs.

<indnt>b. Celluloid, Cellulose Acetate, Cellon or Zellon is a mixture of cellulose acetate and camphor. It is soluble in acetone. Cellulose acetate had many wartime uses: photography film, cellophane, eyeglass frames, combs, electrical insulators in lacquer form, gas masks, transparent face shields, jewelry, as well use as a synthetic fiber.

<indnt>c. Polystyrene is a strong plastic that can be injected, extruded or blow molded. I. G. Farben began manufacturing polystyrene in Ludwigshafen, Germany, around 1931, hoping it would be a suitable replacement for die-cast zinc. Success was achieved when they developed a reactor vessel that extruded polystyrene through a heated tube and cutter, producing polystyrene in pellet form. Polystyrene was also known as Trolitul.
<indnt>d. Polyvinyl chloride, commonly abbreviated PVC, is one of the most widely produced plastics in today’s world. It was created by the German chemist Eugen Baumann in 1872, but never patented until 1913 when German, Friedrich Klatte invented a new method for the polymerization of vinyl chloride using sunlight. PVC is durable, cheap, and easily worked. It can be made softer and more flexible by the addition of plasticizers. In this form, it is used in clothing and upholstery, electrical cable insulation, inflatable products, and many applications in which it replaces rubber. No specific factories were mentioned.
<indnt>e. Astralon, or an equivalent material was not used in Britain during the war. It is a co-polymer of 80 parts Vinyl Chloride and 20 parts Acrylic Resin. Dynamit A.G. manufactured several grades of Vinyl Chloride interpolymers, of which Astralon is the unplasticised sheeting. This material was tried out by several German Comb manufacturers, with varying success. It is regarded as a non flammable Celluloid substitute and said to combine toughness with flexibility. It is said not to absorb moisture and to be heat resisting to 80 degrees Celsius. Although Polystyrene (Trolitul) powder is most widely used for German Molded Comb production, Polyamide (Nylon type) molding powders were used experimentally. This powder is made in three grades A-B-C. Igamid A is harder than B, and has a higher melting point, about 215 degrees Celcius. Igamid 6A is flexible and leather like. Igamid A is said to be most suitable for Combs’.

<indnt>f. Horn consists of keratin and includes solid keratin from other parts of animals, such as hoofs. Horn may be used as a material in tools, furniture and decoration, among others. Horn is somewhat thermoplastic and was used for many purposes where plastic would now be used.

<indnt>g. Plexiglass (Perspex type sheet) Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a transparent thermoplastic, often used as a light or shatter-resistant alternative to glass. It is sometimes called acrylic glass. Chemically, it is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate. The material was developed in 1928 in various laboratories, and was first brought to market in 1933 by Rohm and Haas Company, under the trademark Plexiglas. It has since been sold under many different names including Lucite and Perspex.
<indnt>h. Casein is a product commonly found in milk. Some of the earliest plastics were based on casein. In particular, galalith was well-known for use in buttons. Fiber can be made from extruded casein. Lanital, a fabric made from casein fiber products, was particularly popular in Italy during the 1930s.

[90th Light]

They have also been discussing the use of early plastics on the Imperial forum;

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=777476

Here it has been used for the retainer strips of an officers pickelhaube cover which was quite common back then for the officer model (see images below of broken bit sticking out)

I also have one M43 cap with this material used to make the bill. On my cap it is snapped a bit in the middle where the German soldier has bent it to fold the cap in half. An old German veteran told me, you can shape such a bill when it is wet and it will then dry into the new shape. I do not think I will be trying that on mine after 70+ years but it is an interesting first hand account.

I also remember a thread around 2001 or 2002 on one of the forums where someone had gone to an old factory in Germany where they made tropical caps. They had been told that a whole lot of unissued tropical caps had been thrown out the back in the rubbish pile. When they had a bit if a dig, all they found was a whole lot of bills made of WW2 type plastic. All the cloth & zinc had entirely rotted away. However, the bill formers made of this stuff were still like the day they were made. Another case of the plastic problem in the land fill

Chris