Saran Wrap’s plastic was sprayed on fighter planes before it ever wrapped food.
Dow Chemical lab worker Ralph Wiley accidentally discovered PVDC in 1933 when a vial wouldn’t wash clean. The substance clung and blocked moisture and chemicals, so the military sprayed it on planes and gear to stop corrosion. Dow scrubbed out the green color and the odor, and in 1953 launched the same clingy film nationally as Saran Wrap, its first consumer product.
Saran on Brandseum