Tracing the Evolution of Polymeric Materials: The Pioneering Innovations of the 19th Century (Part 2)

In the mid‑19th century, the world of materials experienced a wave of transformative breakthroughs. Within a single year—1846—gutta‑percha was adapted for telegraph insulation, rubber tires were fabricated for Queen Victoria’s carriage, Alexander Parkes refined a room‑temperature vulcanization technique, and an accidental experiment by Christian Friedrich Schönbein ignited the development of the explosive material that would become guncotton.

Schönbein, a chemistry professor at the University of Basel, discovered ozone and recognized the oxidizing power of a nitric‑sulfuric acid mixture. While distilling this solution in his kitchen, a spillage onto a cotton apron caused it to ignite instantly. The resulting nitrated cellulose—commonly known as guncotton—sparked a brief but intense arms race in Europe and Russia, with patents filed and reverse‑engineering efforts proliferating. The material’s extreme volatility led to spectacular accidents and, ultimately, to bans and a decline in experimentation.

Amidst this turbulence, researchers exploring cellulose nitrate discovered that dissolving it in a mixture of ether and alcohol produced a substance called collodion. When dried, collodion became a tough, transparent film that could function as a varnish, waterproof coating, or moldable solid. It offered properties akin to rubber and gutta‑percha but promised lower costs.

Alexander Parkes, who pioneered cold vulcanization, patented this moldable material in 1856 as Parkesine. It debuted at London’s Great Exhibition in 1862, earning a bronze medal. Parkesine showcased a range of products—including a billiard ball—yet its commercial viability faltered. The high‑cost solvents required for collodion production, coupled with Parkes’ use of substandard cotton waste and excessive castor oil plasticizer, resulted in a product that lacked dimensional stability and suffered from severe lot‑to‑lot variability.

Around the same time, billiard champion Michael Phelan offered a $10,000 prize for a material that could replace ivory in billiard balls. John Wesley Hyatt, a printer intrigued by this challenge, began experimenting with cloth, wood, and paper composites coated with shellac, ivory, or bone dust. His 1865 patent yielded an imitation ivory ball that was unsatisfactory, leading to a 1868 patent for a paper‑and‑wood‑pulp mixture processed under high heat and pressure.

Hyatt’s familiarity with collodion—used in wound care and the printing industry—proved pivotal. A spilled bottle of collodion left a hard film, inspiring him to coat his billiard balls with the material. Through iterative refinements, he increased the viscosity of collodion and, by 1869, produced a compound that could encase a wooden core under heat and pressure. This breakthrough earned him a patent for an improved billiard ball, later known as celluloid.

Although celluloid never entered commercial production for billiard balls nor received Phelan’s prize, Hyatt’s work set the stage for future advancements. By revisiting Parkes’ patents, he discovered that camphor, when used alone as a plasticizer, could render collodion fully formable. This insight allowed him to transform Parkes’ collodion into a versatile material—celluloid—whose properties could be tuned by varying camphor content.

Parallel developments occurred in England, where Daniel Spill—Parkes’ partner—took over Parkes’ failed venture and coined the name Xylonite for a camphor‑based material. The resulting patent dispute spanned 1877 to 1884, ultimately recognizing Parkes as the original inventor and permitting continued manufacturing of celluloid products.

In our next column we will trace celluloid’s expanding applications and the birth of a new plastic processing technique that would shape modern manufacturing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mike Sepe is an independent, global materials and processing consultant based in Sedona, Ariz. With over 40 years of experience in the plastics industry, he advises clients on material selection, design for manufacturability, process optimization, troubleshooting, and failure analysis. Contact: (928) 203‑0408 • mike@thematerialanalyst.com.