Celluloid

Celluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents, generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic. Easily molded and shaped, there are suggestions that celluloid was first made as an ivory replacement. Celluloid is highly flammable and also easily decomposes, and is no longer widely used.

John Wesley and Isaiah Hyatt

In the 1860s, an American by the name of John Wesley Hyatt began experimenting with cellulose nitrate, with the intention of manufacturing billiard balls, which until that time were made from ivory. He used cloth, ivory dust, and shellac and in 1869 patented a method of covering billiard balls with the important addition of collodion. In 1870 John, and his brother Isaiah, patented a process of making a "horn-like material" with the inclusion of cellulose nitrate and camphor. Alexander Parkes and Spill listed camphor during their earlier experiments, but it was the Hyatt brothers who recognized the value of camphor and its use as a plasticizer for cellulose nitrate. Isaiah coined the commercially viable material ?celluloid? in 1872 as a specifically Hyatt product.

Related Topics:
John Wesley Hyatt - Cellulose nitrate - Billiard ball - Ivory - Cloth - Ivory dust - Shellac - 1869 - Patent - Collodion - 1870 - Camphor - 1872

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English inventor Spill took ecception to the Hyatt's claim and persued the brothers in a number of court cases between 1877 and 1884. The outcome was that Spill held no claim to the Hyatt's patents and that the true inventor of celluloid was in fact Alexander Parkes, due to his mentioning of camphor in his earlier experiments and patents. The judge ruled that all manufacturing of celluloid could continue, including the Hyatt's Celluloid Manufacturing Company. Celluloid was later used as the base for photographic film.

Related Topics:
1877 - 1884 - Photographic film

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