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, it was first created as
Parkesine in 1856 and as
Xylonite in 1869 before being registered as
Celluloid in 1870. Celluloid is easily
molded and shaped, and it was first widely
used as an
ivory replacement. Celluloid is
highly flammable and also easily decomposes, and is no longer
widely used. Its most common uses today are in
table tennis balls and
guitar picks.
History
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 1855
in Birmingham
, England
, by Alexander Parkes, who was never able to see
his invention reach full fruition. Parkes patented his
discovery after realising that a solid residue remained after
evaporation of the solvent from photographic collodion.
Parkes patented it as a clothing waterproof for woven fabrics in
the same year.Later in 1862, Parkes showcased
Parkesine at the Great Exhibition in London where
he was awarded a bronze medal for his efforts. Cellulose nitrate
was dissolved in a small measure of solvent, this was then heated
and rolled on a purpose built machine which extracted a proportion
of the solvent. Finally, the use of pressure or
dyes completed the manufacturing process. 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.
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, and
formed the Albany Billiard Ball Company in Albany, New
York
, to manufacture the product. 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 dubbed the commercially viable material
“celluloid” in 1872 as a specifically Hyatt product.
English inventor
Daniel Spill took
exception to the Hyatts' 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 later used as
the base for
photographic
film.
The name
Celluloid actually began as a trademark of the Celluloid Manufacturing Company
first of Albany, NY, and later of Newark, New Jersey
, which manufactured the celluloids patented by John
Wesley Hyatt. Hyatt used heat and pressure to simplify the
manufacture of these compounds. 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
founded the Keystone Dry Plate Works in 1879 with the intention of
producing gelatin dry plates. 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. After this, the celluloid strips were coated with
a photosensitive gelatin emulsion. It is not certain exactly how
long it took for Carbutt to standardize his process, but it
occurred no later than 1888. A 15 inch-wide sheet of Carbutt's film
was used by
William
Dickson for the early
Edison
motion picture experiments on a
cylinder drum Kinetograph. However, the celluloid
film base produced by this means was still
considered too stiff for the needs of motion picture
photography.
By 1889, more flexible celluloids for
photographic film were developed, and both
Hannibal Goodwin and the
Eastman Kodak Company obtained patents for a film
product (
Ansco, which purchased Goodwin's
patent when he died, was eventually successful in an infringement
suit against Kodak). This ability to produce photographic images on
a
flexible material (as
opposed to a glass or metal plate) was a crucial step toward the
advent of motion pictures.
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.
See also
References
- http://www.dandreapicks.com/about.htm Andrea Picks: The Saga of
Cellulose
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