ABSTRACT
Many of the materials from which the everyday artefacts of the 1990s were made would not have been recognised in the early years of the twentieth century. New forms of steel and of plastic were developed in the course of the century. Concrete, aluminium and asbestos became familiar in many contexts, while there were many innovations in the ways in which traditional materials – glass, wood, paper and ceramics – were used. The purpose of this chapter is to outline some of the more significant changes, and to highlight some of the key sites where developments took place.
