Hey all, back at the @tedium commissioned search game—it’s been too long!
Our current one comes from Amandeep Jutla, who has a question about two-liter plastic bottles, and how they used to have multiple pieces of plastic—“a short opaque piece on the bottom and a taller clear piece on top.” [thread]
A broadcasting note: After some time away, I am going to try to get back into doing a few of these as time allows. (If you’ve been waiting on me a while, apologies! Please reach out and nudge!)
Alright, back to it: What happened to the second piece?!
For those who did not grow up with this, this 1978 commercial for DADS Root Beer shows the bottle in action. The top part is clear, and shaped like a torpedo—the bottom opaque and flat.
Why is that? Well, the secret was that it was necessary. The process for making these bottles was new, and the footing hadn’t quite been nailed down. So the bottom also looked like a torpedo. It needed more time in the oven.
This early patent filing, from 1975, shows what I’m talking about.
Throughout this time, other companies were working on this problem, such as Sewell Plastics, a major bottle-maker.
