Hemp Plastic Material Ten Times Stronger Than Steel

Amongst the thousands of products made from hemp, one of the most extraordinary is Henry Ford’s Plastic Hemp Car. Built in 1941, it contained cellulose fibers derived from hemp, sisal, and wheat straw.

The hemp plastic was lighter than steel, yet could withstand ten times the impact without denting.

Could Henry Ford have ever dreamed that the overall cost to design and build a car would catch up with society eventually? Well, this wonderful article clearly shows that Henry just might have been a century ahead of his time. It’s quite ashame that our so called engineers of today are not as inventive and innovative as the great Henry Ford.

Maybe it’s time to implement more radical ideas into mainstream production. Who votes that our current model isn’t working? Wipe the oil from your face and investigate this…

Hemp: Pinch Hitters For Defense
Over in England it’s saccharine for sugar; on the continent it’s charcoal “gasogenes” in the rumble seat instead of gasoline in the tank. Here in America there’s plenty of sugar, plenty of gasoline. Yet there’s an industrial revolution in progress just the same, a revolution in materials that will affect every home. After twelve years of research, the Ford Motor Company has completed an experimental automobile with a plastic body. Although its design takes advantage of the properties of plastics, the streamline car does not differ greatly in appearance from its steel counterpart. The only steel in the hand-made body is found in the tubular welded frame on which are mounted 14 plastic panels, 3/16 inch thick. Composed of a mixture of farm crops and synthetic chemicals, the plastic is reported to withstand a blow 10 times as great as steel without denting. Even the windows and windshield are of plastic. The total weight of the plastic car is about 2,000 pounds, compared with 3,000 pounds for a steel automobile of the same size. Although no hint has been given as to when plastic cars may go into production, the experimental model is pictured as a step toward materialization of Henry Ford’s belief that some day he would “grow automobiles from the soil.” When Henry Ford recently unveiled his plastic car, result of 12 years of research, he gave the world a glimpse of the automobile of tomorrow, its tough panels molded under hydraulic pressure of 1,500 pounds per square inch from a recipe that calls for 70 percent of cellulose fibers from wheat straw, hemp and sisal plus 30 percent resin binder. The only steel in the car is its tubular welded frame. The plastic car weighs a ton, 1,000 pounds lighter than a comparable steel car. Manufacturers are already taking a low-priced plastic car to test the public’s taste by 1943. — Popular Mechanics (December, 1941)