Silicone is a generic term denoting compounds which have a backbone of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms with additives hanging off the silicon atoms as pendant groups. Silicon and oxygen are the two elements in greatest supply on the Earth’s crust.

Silicon was first isolated by Jons J. Berzelius (1779-1848) in its amorphous state in the 1820s. In 1854 Henri-Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville (1818-1881) obtained it in crystalline form. Charles Friedel (1832-1899) researched silicon compounds as part of his search for synthetic diamonds. By 1863 Friedel and his partner, James Crafts (1839-1917), had produced the first organo-silicon compound. Alfred Stock (1876-1946), Albert Ladenburg (1842-1911), and A. Polis all conducted research into carbon-silicon bonds. It was not until Victor Grignard (1871-1935) had discovered Grignard reagents, organo-magnesium compounds, that Frederic Stanley Kipping prepared his first silicone using the Grignard reagents. While there is some doubt as to whether he was the very...