Poly is a synthetic polymer derived from methyl methacrylate. It is a transparent thermoplastic used as an engineering plastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic and acrylic glass and by the trade names a
Lichtenberg figure: high-voltage dielectric breakdown in an acrylic polymer block
Pieces of Plexiglas taken from the windscreen of a German plane shot down during World War II
Close-up of pressure sphere of the bathyscaphe Trieste, with a single conical window of PMMA set into sphere hull. The very small black circle (smaller than the man's head) is the inner side of the plastic "window", only a few inches in diameter. The larger circular clear black area represents the larger outer side of the thick one-piece plastic cone "window".
Trieste is a Swiss-designed, Italian-built deep-diving research bathyscaphe. In 1960, it became the first crewed vessel to reach the bottom of Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point
Poly(methyl methacrylate)
…PMMA is used for viewing ports and even complete pressure hulls of submersibles, such as the Alicia submarine's viewing sphere and the window of the bathyscaphe Trieste. PMMA is used in the lenses of exterior lights of automobiles…
Trieste shortly after her purchase by the US Navy in 1958
Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard aboard Trieste
Trieste just before the Mariana dive 23 January 1960, seen escorted by USS Lewis