11th May 2020 - 75th Anniversary of VE Day

Let’s talk about Glues

Many of us woodworkers use glue in many of our projects and so I thought three stories about World War Two, Wood and Glue would be appropriate as we remember VE Day.

Casein is a protein found in milk; around 80% of the proteins in cow's milk are casein and it is the coagulation of the casein protein which creates cheese. However, our interest as woodworkers and turners lies in its use in making glue.

Casein-based glues are formulated from very few ingredients; casein, water, hydrated lime and sodium hydroxide. This glue was popular for bonding woods together, including for the manufacturing aircraft. The last major use in aviation was for the de Havilland Albatross airliner of which seven were built and named in 1938/39; their names all start with the letter f. With the onset of World War II, the Royal Air Force considered the fleet’s range and speed useful for courier flights between Great Britain and Iceland. The two mail plane variants were pressed into service with 271 Squadron in September 1940, operating between Prestwick and Reykjavik, but both were destroyed in landing accidents in Reykjavík within the space of 9 months: Faraday in 1941 and Franklin in 1942. The five passenger aircraft were used by Imperial Airways, (BOAC from September 1940) on Bristol–Lisbon and Bristol–Shannon routes from Bristol (Whitchurch) Airport. Frobisher was destroyed during a German air raid on Whitchurch in 1940, Fingal was destroyed in a crash landing following a fuel pipe failure in 1940 at Pucklechurch and Fortuna crashed near Shannon Airport in 1943. The latter accident was found to be due to deterioration of the aircraft's plywood wing structures. In view of the two surviving aircraft's vulnerability to similar problems, and for lack of spares parts, Falcon and Fiona were scrapped in September 1943. Although casein glue was very strong it was susceptible to bacteria, and new discoveries and greater use of metal meant it fell out of favour.

Casein based glue is still available today as Cascamite and used as a viable alternative to traditional wood glues in furniture making, as it is now mould and water resistant.

But there's one small tool whose World War II heritage is lesser-known:

Superglue

Used by woodworkers all over the world, it plays a very important part by allowing rapid joining and stabilising of wood fibres for turning.

Super glue (cynoacrylic) was invented by chance. It was considered by some to be the most important development in the history of adhesives, and it happened during World War II in 1942, when American chemist Harry Coover Jr working for Eastman Kodak created the first cyanoacrylate glue by pure accident.

Information from www.gluehistory.com

Superglue was first developed by scientists at Eastman Kodak who were trying to design gun sights for the military after they found that some of their failed attempts had other useful properties.

While the adhesive has become known for fixing pottery and clothing, during the Vietnam War (1955-1975), it became life saving. "If somebody had a chest wound or open wound that was bleeding," inventor Harry Coover once told the Kingsport Times-News, "the biggest problem they had was stopping the bleeding so they could get the patient back to the hospital. And the consequence was—many of them bled to death. So the medics used the spray, stopped the bleeding, and were able to get the wounded back to the base hospital. And many, many lives were saved."

Extract from web site www.PopularMechanics.com

Resorcinol Glue

The De Havilland Mosquito was a fast, light strike bomber and night fighter. It was built by the furniture industry, which was mostly based at its traditional centre in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. One of the fastest and most successful aircraft of World War II, it was the reason that High Wycombe was one of the most heavily bombed London suburb towns.

There had been many aeroplanes made of wood, in fact most were until the mid-twenties. The big difference with the Mosquito was it was made of a plywood laminate, a much stronger material. This was made possible by the invention of waterproof glue. Before then plywood de-laminated when wet.

The glue was Resorcinol; it was dark red with a bad smell. Resorcinol glue was invented by Dr. Yarstey of Yarstey Laboratories in West Ewell.

Extract with grateful thanks to World War II Peoples War web site and the author epsomandewelllhc

Thanks to Ted Higgs for compiling this article.