been affordable only by the wealthy. They enabled efficient manufacture of better
quality products and also possessed a previously unknown portfolio of properties.
The next great step after rubber came with derivatives of cellulose, esterified into
nitrocellulose even before 1850. The completely nitrated form, cellulose trinitrate,
was used as gun cotton, an explosive, while the equally flammable cellulose
dinitrate was called collodion cotton and utilized as a varnish and in medicine.
Several inventors tried to make the material less hazardous by adding other
substances. In 1856, Alexander Parkes was the first to succeed in producing a
practical thermoplastic material from cellulose dinitrate, oil, and camphor
(“Parkesine”) [31], but he was not able to market it successfully. The breakthrough
came in 1868 when John W. Hyatt, in an effort to win 10,000 US dollars in prize
money,
2 managed to mix cellulose dinitrate and camphor [32]. The material was
registered under the trademark Celluloid and was produced and sold starting in
1870. Its success was due in large part to the thermoplastic character of the material,
as well as the good dyeability. Combs, dentures, eyeglass frames, bowls, jars,
fountain pens, knife handles, etc. were the result. Celluloid also played a key role
in the development of photography and cinematography: as a stiff, tough, and
completely transparent film, it made photography easier and cheaper. From 1884
on, celluloid made motion-pictures possible – “to capture on celluloid” became
synonymous with putting on film (although less flammable plastics have displaced
celluloid, and digital motion pictures do not need any transparent carrier material).
Other great plastics have other origins: Galalith, for instance, is a material obtained
from milk and formaldehyde, accidentally discovered by Adolf Spitteler and
Wilhelm Krische in 1897 and patented in 1899 [33–35].
The synthetic textiles industry also evolved on the basis of cellulose, a very pure
and cheap raw material. Cellulose is infusible, insoluble in nearly all liquids, and
difficult to process. Efforts were directed at making it soluble. In 1855, George
Aude ´mars patented the manufacture of fine fibers from cellulose nitrate [36]. In
1888, Joseph Swan drew fibers from cellulose nitrate in acetic acid to make
filaments in electric lamps; he also recognized the textile potential and was the
first to create cloth from it [37]. A great advancement was made by Hilaire
Bernigaud, Comte de Chardonnet de Grange, who spun cellulose nitrate out of a
mixture of alcohol and ether in 1884 and who presented the fabric at the World Fair
in 1889 in Paris [37]. This fabric was soon known as “Chardonnet silk” and led to
the first synthetic textile factory being built in Besanc ¸on. Chardonnet rendered the
fabric less flammable through denitration in a hydrosulfide bath. Just one year after
the Paris exhibition, Louis Henri Despaisses discovered that cellulose can be
dissolved via copper oxide and ammonia and precipitated again in diluted sulfuric
acid; he used Chardonnet’s spinning technique for the “regenerated cellulose”
[37]. The next step in the evolution of synthetic fibers was the accomplishment of
2 The prize was advertised by the Phelan Collender Billiard Factory in New York, which had been
looking for a substitute material for ivory in billiard balls; the award would be valued at a million
dollars today on the basis of an average worker’s wages.
64
U.W. Suter
quality products and also possessed a previously unknown portfolio of properties.
The next great step after rubber came with derivatives of cellulose, esterified into
nitrocellulose even before 1850. The completely nitrated form, cellulose trinitrate,
was used as gun cotton, an explosive, while the equally flammable cellulose
dinitrate was called collodion cotton and utilized as a varnish and in medicine.
Several inventors tried to make the material less hazardous by adding other
substances. In 1856, Alexander Parkes was the first to succeed in producing a
practical thermoplastic material from cellulose dinitrate, oil, and camphor
(“Parkesine”) [31], but he was not able to market it successfully. The breakthrough
came in 1868 when John W. Hyatt, in an effort to win 10,000 US dollars in prize
money,
2 managed to mix cellulose dinitrate and camphor [32]. The material was
registered under the trademark Celluloid and was produced and sold starting in
1870. Its success was due in large part to the thermoplastic character of the material,
as well as the good dyeability. Combs, dentures, eyeglass frames, bowls, jars,
fountain pens, knife handles, etc. were the result. Celluloid also played a key role
in the development of photography and cinematography: as a stiff, tough, and
completely transparent film, it made photography easier and cheaper. From 1884
on, celluloid made motion-pictures possible – “to capture on celluloid” became
synonymous with putting on film (although less flammable plastics have displaced
celluloid, and digital motion pictures do not need any transparent carrier material).
Other great plastics have other origins: Galalith, for instance, is a material obtained
from milk and formaldehyde, accidentally discovered by Adolf Spitteler and
Wilhelm Krische in 1897 and patented in 1899 [33–35].
The synthetic textiles industry also evolved on the basis of cellulose, a very pure
and cheap raw material. Cellulose is infusible, insoluble in nearly all liquids, and
difficult to process. Efforts were directed at making it soluble. In 1855, George
Aude ´mars patented the manufacture of fine fibers from cellulose nitrate [36]. In
1888, Joseph Swan drew fibers from cellulose nitrate in acetic acid to make
filaments in electric lamps; he also recognized the textile potential and was the
first to create cloth from it [37]. A great advancement was made by Hilaire
Bernigaud, Comte de Chardonnet de Grange, who spun cellulose nitrate out of a
mixture of alcohol and ether in 1884 and who presented the fabric at the World Fair
in 1889 in Paris [37]. This fabric was soon known as “Chardonnet silk” and led to
the first synthetic textile factory being built in Besanc ¸on. Chardonnet rendered the
fabric less flammable through denitration in a hydrosulfide bath. Just one year after
the Paris exhibition, Louis Henri Despaisses discovered that cellulose can be
dissolved via copper oxide and ammonia and precipitated again in diluted sulfuric
acid; he used Chardonnet’s spinning technique for the “regenerated cellulose”
[37]. The next step in the evolution of synthetic fibers was the accomplishment of
2 The prize was advertised by the Phelan Collender Billiard Factory in New York, which had been
looking for a substitute material for ivory in billiard balls; the award would be valued at a million
dollars today on the basis of an average worker’s wages.
64
U.W. Suter