Turning milk into hard plastic

04/10/15 - 4/16/15

Over Spring Break I made a small experiment about making milk into plastic. I learned that in the 1900s up until 1945 the people used milk as plastic by doing this experiment. They were also made into jewelry, combs, buckles, beads, buttons, and fountain pens. So how do you turn milk into hard plastic? You will need these ingredients.

• Warm Milk
• Vinegar
• Bowl
• Paper Towel(s)
• Measuring cup
• Spoon

What I did was first measure out two cups of warm milk. For about a minute, or until you feel like the  milk is warm, heat it up. Then add a tablespoon for every one cup of milk. Then stir until you see chunky pieces of milk. This is called casein. It can be used for many things, like cheese for example. After stirring I got a colander, and put the was milk in it. Separating liquid from the solid. Then when I got rid most of the liquids I got paper towels to dry the casein. What I did was put the casein in the middle of the paper towels and folded the corners.

I sculptured what I wanted the casein to look like. Then I set it down to let it dry. Days later it was still drying. I left it alone for a week, and nothing was happening. The casein did get harder, but not to the point where it could be as hard as a rock. On the 6th day, I looked at it again. Thinking what I did wrong. I then realized I made cheese instead of plastic.

What I learned from this is to always find other instructions and not just rely on one. Because things might not turn out the way they plan. That's why you look at other websites. If it doesn't work out, you have to try again. Not everything works at the first try. I think the problem with this experiment was that I forgot an ingredient, or a step. I don't know how I got this mistake. I usually find my mistakes, but on this problem I didn't. Looking at the bright side though, something good came out of this experiment. Except the smell, not a fan of the smell of cheese.