Poly first commercial sheet

The first methacrylic esters were prepared by dehydration of hydroxyisobutyric esters, prohibitively expensive starting points for commercial synthesis. In 1932 J. W. C. Crawford discovered a new route to the monomer using cheap and readily available chemicals—acetone, hydrocyanic acid, methanol and sulphuric acid— and it is his process which has been used, with minor modifications, throughout the world. Sheet poly(methyl methacrylate) became prominent during World War II for aircraft glazing, a use predicted by Hill in his early patents, and since then has found other applications in many fields. 

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