-------------------------------------------+--------------------- Type | 1934 | 1935 -------------------------------------------+----------+---------- | _Pounds_ | _Pounds_ Solid, liquid, cured, uncured, and hardened|25,558,400|13,283,200 Molding powder, 50 percent or more resin | |25,872,000 Laminated sheets, rods, blocks, tubes | 1,164,800| 1,646,400 +----------+---------- Total |26,723,200|40,801,600 -------------------------------------------+----------+---------- Source: Great Britain. Board of Trade, Census of Production. Capital invested in the British industry is reported as 15,000,000 pounds sterling and direct employment as 20,000 people. _Tar-acid resins._—Many large moldings are made in England, such as large radio cases, desk files, trays, and drain boards. Cast phenolic resin production has just been started in England. Among the novelties recently produced in England is a toy railway molded of tar-acid resin. The trains and track spacers are of nonconducting resin; the molded rails are made conductive by a thin covering of metal which is pressed in and secured at the ends. Two trains may be run on the same set of rails at different speeds, or one can go forward and another backward, since the two outer rails are separate conductors, the third rail acting as a common return. Molded piano parts are being tried in an attempt to solve the troubles hitherto encountered with wood, owing to variations in humidity. Resins have long been used in facing the keys, but the production of piano action parts has presented many technical difficulties. The secret of success with molded resin parts lies in molding the joints in position when the main body is molded. There are 88 sections in each piano. _Urea resins._—British Cyanides, Ltd., well-known makers of synthetic resins in England, acquired the Pollopas patents for the manufacture of urea resins in the United Kingdom, in certain continental European countries, and in the British Empire except Canada. The agreement called for a full exchange of patents and other information with the other licensees of the Pollopas patents. These arrangements were made for the purpose of consolidating the patent position and for the pooling of technical data already existing on manufacture, with the object of improving quality. _Acrylate resins._—An outstanding development in Great Britain has been the production of the thermoplastic resins known as Diakon and Perspex. These are made from methyl methacrylate and are developments of the Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd. Diakon is for molding powders and Perspex is in the form of cast sheets, rods, tubes, and optical forms.