This 1936 article on the use of the "Chinese soy bean" to make Ford cars is absolutely charming in its random use of phrases like "chop suey" and "automobile farming."
PLASTICS – chemical compounds which, are compressed under heat into desired shapes, and thereafter are not subject to corrosion–are increasingly in use. Some are made of coal-tar products, some of milk; and one, which Henry Ford is now employing extensively, utilizes the Chinese soy bean. This useful plant, is, next to rice, the staff of life in the Celestial republic; like beans, peas, and other "legume" plants, it contains the proteins, or nitrogen compounds, for which we eat meat. Its oil, also, has found many uses; and those who have eaten the great American national dish, chop suey, are familiar with the dark soy sauce which accompanies it. The mechanical uses of the soy bean (which does not resemble American beans) are of more recent discovery. It furnishes a fibrous flour, which gives body to a phenol (carbolic acid) compound. Under heat and pressure, this changes into a hard, strong, glossy substance, suitable for buttons, knobs, handles, mouldings, etc. About fifteen pounds of beans are now used in each Ford car, and raised under the direction of the manufacturer.
Auto Made from Beans (Apr, 1936)
