The interdisciplinary nature of polymer electrolytes is briefly surveyed. The 1970s are identified as a decade of change from a ＇classical＇ period of polymer science, in which the foundations of the chemistry and physics of the subject were established alongside the consumer plastics industry, to a period in which scarcer research funds became directed towards increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative projects and in which commercial applications and environmental factors became increasingly prominent. The introduction of polymers with high levels of ionic conductivity and their adoption by the wider technological community is an apparent consequence of the research and industrial experience of the author together with the ＇new＇ climate of the 1970 s which also gave rise to other areas of electroactive polymer activity. Some further developments in polymer electrolytes during the 1980 s and closer to the present time are also briefly reviewed.