Wikinventia — Atlas of discoveries and inventions · Industrial Age

Celluloid — Alexander Parkes and John Wesley Hyatt

1856 AD · Transmission: Global
ChemistryMaterialsInventionBritishNorth American

Parkes develops Parkesine (1856), the first semi-synthetic plastic, from nitrated plant cellulose with camphor as plasticizer. Hyatt industrializes it as celluloid (1870), the first commercially viable plastic. Direct precursor of Bakelite (1907), the first fully synthetic plastic, and of flexible photographic film that makes cinema possible.

Historical regionBirmingham, UK / Albany, New York, USA
Primary sourceParkes, A. — British Patent No. 2675 (1856)
Secondary sourceFriedel, R. — Pioneer Plastic (1983)
Original languageEnglish
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