The Role of Chemistry in History

Pet Sounds: What is an Album? / History of Recorded Sound / History of Polyvinyl Chloride / Vinyl Records: LPs and 45s / Album Conventions / Health and Environmental Issues / Downfall of Vinyl Records

Polyvinyl Chloride was discovery in 1835 by Henri Victor Regnault who did not patent it or find any use for it. PVC was rediscovered by multiple scientists but it wasn’t until 1926 when Waldo Semon, a B.F. Goodrich employee, mixed it with other materials that it became useful.

In the polymerization of vinyl chloride, the double bond is broken into a single bond and the two remaining electrons rearrange to the other side of the carbon atoms to create a place to connect more monomers.

The Vinyl Chloride Monomer:


A Polyvinyl Chloride chain:

Because of its strucutre Polyvinyl Chloride is an ideal plastic for many things including records.

Pet Sounds: What is an Album? / History of Recorded Sound / History of Polyvinyl Chloride / Vinyl Records: LPs and 45s / Album Conventions / Health and Environmental Issues / Downfall of Vinyl Records

• The first practical sound recorder that also played back that sound was Thomas Edison’s photograph.

• The phonograph was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877. It recorded sound by converting it to electric impulses that moved an engraver on a wax cylinder. When the cylinder was played a stylus would read the grooves and produce sound. They contained about two minutes of sound.
• Emile Berliner created the gramophone disc or gramophone record in 1889.
• Eldridge Johnson developed a way to mas produce gramophone discs.
• Up until the 1950’s most records were made out of shellac, a natural resin from the insect Kerria lacca. They were brittle and easily breakable.
• In 1929, microphones were combined with recording technology to greatly improve the clarity and quality of recordings.
• World War II introduced Magnetic tape to the recording process.
• World War II also destroyed America’s only source of shellac when Japan blockaded  South East Asian ports. Thus vinyl was used as an alternative. 

Pet Sounds: What is an Album? / History of Recorded Sound / History of Polyvinyl Chloride / Vinyl Records: LPs and 45s / Album Conventions / Health and Environmental Issues / Downfall of Vinyl Records

• In 1965 the Beatles record Rubber Soul

• In 1966, inspired by this Brian Wilson writes Pet Sounds, considered by many to be the greatist album ever made.

• The Beatles respond in 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band which included album art work, liner notes, and a hidden track.

Some Definitions  

• A record is the physical disc on which sound is stored. It is usually vinyl or shellac but can be made of many other plastics.
• A Compact Disc is a modern data storage device invented in the 1980s. It has largely replaced the vinyl record as the dominate medium.
• An album is a collection of songs connected by theme, mood, or sound intended to be together. It can exsist in physical form on CD or vinyl or in electronic form.
• Albums range in length anywhere from a half an hour to eighty minutes.
• Albums have cover art, (even today on itunes) linear notes, or other inserts.
• Albums have consistent track listings.
• A Live Album is one recorded of live material. It typically does not have the thematic unity of a studio album
• A Studio album is an recording of individual tracks that are typically previously unreleased on other albums. These are the types of Albums that my paper focuses on.
• Collections of previously released songs by one band are Compilation Albums. Tribute albums are made of covers of other bands. These too are unimportant to PVC’s effects on history.

A Scene to Die For: The Endless Love Affair of Smoking and Film

         At the beginning of the 1900’s the powerful hold that the cinema and movie stars have always held over the American public was put to lucrative use in the promotion of cigarettes.  This was such an important marketing strategy for cigarette companies because of the integral part the cinema plays in not just American culture, but around the world.  The combination of the general public’s obsession with the cinema and their admiration for movie stars has resulted in a force that has had and will continue to have far-reaching and immeasurable effects on society. 

People want to be like the movie stars they idolize so much – these incredibly attractive and glamorous people that most average people can only hope to be.  Cigarette companies preyed on these dreams of the common people who, when searching for any means to be like these stars, finally came on the attainable method of smoking.  It was through these loved stars of Hollywood and the movies they starred in that cigarettes became a central part of American culture and have refused to let go.  When these two joined forces, neither cigarettes nor the cinema would ever be the same.

Among early movie stars, cigarette smoking was pervasive.  Although many cigarette companies have never confessed to directly funding movies – in return, of course, for some cigarette air time – some, such as Phillip Morris have attested to this fact.  However, even without this confession, it is clear from the prominence of cigarettes in movies that if other companies are not directly funding movies for these purposes, their products are finding indirect ways to make it to the big screen.  Movie heroes and heroines did not just succeed in their epic movie struggles; they succeeded in winning over the public in their habit of cigarette smoking.

For men, cigarettes symbolized strength; they were the epitome of masculinity.  James Dean was the first teen idol, a fact that proved quite useful to cigarette companies.  To teenage boys nation-wide, Dean was rebellious and stylish – and so were the cigarettes he was always smoking in the eyes of his adoring fans.  But Dean was far from alone in his distinguishing use of cigarettes.  For countless other Hollywood men, the image they gave off of toughness, sophistication, and even sexiness was soon associated with the cigarettes they all smoked.  Cigarettes for women, on the other hand, were sexy and glamorous.  Audrey Hepburn, among many others, helped to demonstrate that cigarettes are not just for men.

            The use of cigarettes actually proved to be quite useful in movies.  Smoking in movies helped to set the atmosphere and develop the personalities of characters.  In the present day, cigarettes can be an effective means to transport the audience back in time to a period when smoking was a more socially-desirable behavior.  And although it may have taken on new meanings as cigarettes started to be viewed less favorably by the public – perhaps now seen as “hedonistic” and “self-destructive” – it is these qualities as well as those traditional ones that people long to see in on the big screen.

            Promoting cigarettes through movies was such an effective strategy in part because people were not even aware that anything was even being advertised – instead they received the promotion of cigarettes through their desire to be just like their favorite movie stars.  Although the use of cigarettes in film greatly declined as awareness increased about their deadly health implications, they were never completely stubbed out.  In fact, in the present day, cigarettes have just as much of a presence as they did in the 50’s.  With what has shown to be such a compatible relationship, it is doubtful that cigarettes and the cinema will be parting ways any time soon.

Introduction to Nicotine | A Brief History of Tobacco | Chemical Properties | Addiction | Toxicity | Tobacco and America | Tobacco and the Cinema | References

• Even a small drop of nicotine in its pure form would be enough to kill someone. This toxicity gives it the potential to be used as a pesticide.

• Smoking cigarettes, which is the main method of nicotine use, is linked to various illnesses, such as: cancer of the upper and lower respiratory tract, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease

Introduction to Nicotine | A Brief History of Tobacco | Chemical Properties | Addiction | Toxicity | Tobacco and America | Tobacco and the Cinema | References

“I Can Quit Whenever I Want To…”: Nicotine Addiction

 Addictive Nature

• Nicotine is highly addictive and is actually comparable to other hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin in its addictiveness.   

•   Due to nicotine’s ability to promote the release of dopamine, smokers become dependent on nicotine to help release dopamine, and must have increasingly more to produce the same effect.

• Nicotine takes effect in the limbic system of the brain which contains the brain’s natural “reward system” which alerts a person that something is good and that they should continue doing it

Withdraw 

• Many smokers experience an increase in their stress level between each cigarette, which is relieved when they next smoke.

• Symptoms experienced by abstaining from smoking: increased anxiety, irritability, poor concentration, restlessness, and trouble sleeping

Introduction to Nicotine | A Brief History of Tobacco | Chemical Properties | Addiction | Toxicity | Tobacco and America | Tobacco and the Cinema | References

Structure

How it Works 

1. The nicotine molecules attach to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on certain nerve cells. 

2. The nerve cells respond to the nicotine molecules by releasing the neurotransmitter glutamate.

3. The glutamate alerts neurons to release dopamine

Result: Pleasurable feelings, stress reduction, increased heart rate, heightened alertness, increased ability to process information, and improved cognitive abilities.

Introduction to Nicotine | A Brief History of Tobacco | Chemical Properties | Addiction | Toxicity | Tobacco and America | Tobacco and the Cinema | References

Tobacco: From Indigenous Ritual to World Culture

Introduction to Nicotine | A Brief History of Tobacco | Chemical Properties | Addiction | Toxicity | Tobacco and America | Tobacco and the Cinema | References

• Nicotine is obtained primarily from tobacco leaves.

• All methods of ingesting nicotine – smoking, chewing, or sniffing tobacco – transports nicotine to the brain. 

• An individual cigarette contains about 10 milligrams of nicotine, although a person ends up receiving only about 1 or 2 milligrams.  

Introduction to Nicotine | A Brief History of Tobacco | Chemical Properties | Addiction | Toxicity | Tobacco and America | Tobacco and the Cinema | References