Acronym and details: excretion of tropical beetle mixed with fillers such as cotton flock, powdered slate, wood flour
Group: thermoplastic or set depending on heat used in manufacture
Developed: known for thousand of years; used to make products from 1860s to 1940s
Trade names: Diatite; Florence compound; Peck
Manufacturing process: compression moulding
Cost: medium
Colour: dark brown, blackand occasionally paler dull shades
Transparency: always opaque
Rigidity: rigid
Feel: hard
Smell: sealing wax
Other: brittle; capable of reproducing very fine detail
Typical uses: cases for daguerreotypes and ambrotypes (early forms of photographs on glass); dressing table sets; 78 rpm records until 1948; as stiffening for bowler and riding hats; also used as lacquer
Degradation: relatively stable