You probably don't put a lot of thought into buttons on the clothes you wear, but trust me, someone does. One of the most astonishing developments in button technology (if any) of the twentieth century was the use of melamine resin, a plastic polymer formed from melamine and formaldehyde. Melamine products are shatterproof, fireproof and very lightweight, making them ideal for military applications, but not in the way you might first think.
In 1940, the U.S. Navy was looking for a replacement for its dinnerware. The ceramic plates, bowls and mugs they had been using were too heavy, too fragile and too large for Navy use, especially with the outbreak of World War II threatening to sweep over the United States at any moment. The British armed forces have switched to a urea-formaldehyde plastic called the Beetle, but it is far less elastic than the Americans would like​