The earliest commercial plastic (c.18659), consisting of cellulose nitrate plasticized with camphor. It had the great virtue of dimensional stability, which kept it in vogue for photographic film in spite of its dangerous inflammability, long after other plastics had been contrived. It was eventually superseded as a film base by dimensionally stable forms of cellulose acetate.
Celluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents.
Nitrocellulose
Nitrocellulose-based plastics slightly predate celluloid: collodion, invented in 1848 and used as a wound dressing and emulsion for photographic plates, dried to a celluloid-like film.
Alexander Parkes
The first celluloid as a bulk material for forming objects was made in 1856 in Birmingham England by Alexander Parkes, who was never able to see his invention reach full fruition.
Parkes patented it as a clothing waterproof for woven fabrics in the same year. In 1866, Parkes tried again with his invention and he created a company to manufacture and market Parkesine but this failed in 1868 after trying to cut costs to enable further manufacture.
Daniel Spill
One year after Parkesine failed, Daniel Spill created the Xylonite Company, to design and market a similar product to Parkesine. Spill then reorganized and set up the Daniel Spill Company to continue production, he later pursued the Hyatt brothers over their patenting of celluloid.
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.
English inventor Spill took exception to the Hyatt's claim and pursued the brothers in a number of court cases between 1877 and 1884. The outcome was that Spill held no claim to the Hyatts' 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 Hyatts' Celluloid Manufacturing Company. Celluloid was later used as the base for photographic film.
Trademark
The name Celluloid actually began as a trademark of the Celluloid Manufacturing Company of Newark, New Jersey, which manufactured the celluloids patented by John Wesley Hyatt. The name was registered in 1870 but after a long court battle between Spill and the Hyatt brothers a judge later ruled that the true inventor of celluloid (by process, not name) was Alexander Parkes.
Photography
English photographer John Carbutt intended to sell gelatin dry plates when, in 1879, he founded the Keystone Dry Plate Works. The Celluloid Manufacturing Company was contracted for this work by means of thinly slicing layers out of celluloid blocks and then removing the slice marks with heated pressure plates. However, the celluloid film base produced by this means was still considered too stiff for the needs of motion picture photography.
In the 1889, more flexible celluloids for photographic film were developed.
Discontinuation
As thermoplastics, celluloids found a wide variety of uses in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. The use of celluloid for early film however has caused large problems in film preservation.
In the 21st century, cured celluloid is used in luxury pens produced by OMAS, and other high-end pen manufacturers.
Formulation
A typical formulation of celluloid might contain 70 to 80 parts nitrocellulose, nitrated to 11% nitrogen, 30 parts camphor, 0 to 14 parts dye, 1 to 5 parts ethyl alcohol, plus stabilizers and other agents to increase stability and reduce flammability.
Products still made from celluloid include the table tennis ball, and some musical instrument accessories and parts: guitar picks and pickguards.
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