The Men Who Invented Plastic

The evolution of the chemistry behind plastics is mind numbing, and the uses for plastics are endless. In the Middle Ages, when scientists first started to experiment, plastics were derived from organic natural sources, such as egg and blood proteins. It wasn't until the 19^th and 20^th centuries that the plastics we know today were created. Many Americans will recognize the name Goodyear, it was Charles Goodyear who began the modern-day plastic revolution when he vulcanized rubber in 1839, paving the way for the tire. Prior to his discovery, products made with rubber did not hold up well in warm temperatures or climates. Rubber is only one source of plastic, however, and three key inventors followed Goodyear's path and took plastic from a nearly unusable hard substance to the invaluable man-made resource it is today.

Alexander Parkes

The son of a brass lock manufacturer, Alexander Parkes was born in Birmingham, England in 1813. Parkes was raised around metal fabrication. In his first job he worked as an apprentice at Birmingham's brass foundry, owned by Samuel S. Messengers and Sons. Parkes switched his attention from brass work to electroplating when he went to work for George and Henry Elkington. It was there Parkes developed his inventive spirit. Parkes' first patent, awarded in 1841, dealt with electroplating delicate items such as flowers, but throughout his career Parkes reportedly held more than 80 patents on his works with both metals and plastics.

Parkes is credited with inventing the first man-made plastic, which he patented as Parkesine in 1856. Parkes introduced this combination of nitrocellulose and solvents to England in 1862 at the London International Exhibition. While Parkesine itself did not prove to be a successful material in its original formulation, it was too flammable, it laid the groundwork for successful derivative materials from future inventors. One of those inventors being John Wesley Hyatt.

Syracuse University Library's The Plastics Collection

Plastic Historical Society's Discussion of Alexander Parkes

Alexander Parkes' Role in Making the Modern World

The History of Plastic as Presented by Euless, Texas

Birmingham, United Kingdom Presents Alexander Parkes

John Wesley Hyatt

What Alexander Parkes started, John Wesley Hyatt took to the next level. Hyatt was born in Starkey, New York in 1837, and patented several hundred inventions. Hyatt's link to plastics comes in the form of the game of billiards. Billiard balls were originally made of ivory, a commodity that was in steep decline in the 1800s. Most likely inspired by the $10,000 reward being offered, Hyatt took on the challenge of finding a substitute material to manufacture billiard balls. Hyatt's experiments began with a combination of Parkes' Parkesine, a solid form of nitrocellulose, and another English inventor, Frederick Scott Archer's, discovery of liquid nitrocellulose. Hyatt combined to two to create celluloid, which he patented in 1870.

Celluloid was used for numerous products, including billiard balls for Hyatt's own company rather than his former employer. Celluloid also produced false teeth, combs, baby rattles, and piano keys. Despite its replacement by newer synthetic materials in today's marketplace, Hyatt's patented version of celluloid is still used to produce ping-pong balls. There is no doubt that the invention of celluloid was the next important rung in the plastic manufacturing ladder, including the use of celluloid in film production.

Syracuse University Library's John Wesley Hyatt Collection

Smithsonian American Art Museum John Wesley Hyatt Award

Montclair State University's When Newark Was America's Celluloid Capitol

Smithsonian Archives Center for Celluloid Corporation Records

The University of Utah Department of Chemical Engineering

Leo Hendrik Baekeland

Much like Parkes' invention led to Hyatt's success, Hyatt's celluloid influenced Leo Baekeland. This Belgium-born chemist paved the way for George Eastman, of Eastman Kodak, to build the photographic empire we know today. Born in 1863, Baekeland's first invention was Velox, a paper which allowed photographs to be taken in artificial light. Eastman purchased the Velox process from Baekeland for a reported $750,000 in 1899. Baekeland used that money to fund his own in-home laboratory.

Baekeland moved his experiments from photography paper to synthetic resins, and invented Bakelite, a combination of phenol and formaldehyde in 1907. Bakelite was officially patented in 1909. Bakelite was a hard, yet moldable, plastic, and was considered the product that led the world into the Age of Plastics. Bakelite was used in everything from buttons to art deco furniture to television sets. While these items are made from different types of materials today, Bakelite is still used in the production of items such as car brakes and materials used in the space shuttle.

Chemical Heritage Foundation's Leo Hendrik Baekeland Biography

Denmark's Bakelite Museum

Syracuse University's Biography of Leo Hendrik Baekeland

PBS' Who Made America? Leo Baekeland

Yonkers, Home of the Plastic Age