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The first man-made plastic was discovered by Alexander Parkes in 1862. The material, Parkesine, was an organic material made from cellulose that could be molded when heated and retained its shape when cooled. Parkes believed his new material was interchangeable with, but less expensive than rubber.  His material was transparent and could be cut into shapes by hand.  Parkesine was not successful because it’s investors discontinued support due to the high cost of raw materials.

In 1866, John Wesley Hyatt invented celluloid to replace the natural ivory used in billiard balls. Elephants were in danger of becoming extinct as billiards became a very popular game. Hyatt spilled a bottle of collodion in his lab and discovered that the material congealed into a strong, flexible film. He started producing billiard balls using collodian, but due to its volatile nature, the balls would explode when they hit one another.  To stabilize the collodian, Hyatt added camphor, derived from the laurel tree, making celluloid, the first thermoplastic.

Rayon, a modified cellulose, was developed in 1891 by Louis Marie Hilaire Bernigaut. He was looking for a way to produce a man-made silk. Bernigaut noticed that the silkworm would secrete a liquid that would harden when exposed to air. He wanted to find a liquid that had similar properties to silk. He designed a machine to form fibers that could be spun and feel like silk, but his procedure was highly flammable. Charles Topham lent Benigaut a hand and together rayon was born.

Cellophane was discovered by Jacques Edwin Brandenberger in 1900. Brandenberger added rayon to cloth in an attempt to make a tablecloth that would not stain, but found the material too brittle and stiff.  Brandenberger did not give up. He developed a machine that produced rayon sheets, which he marketed as Cellophane. He continued to improve his idea which eventually became a clear, flexible, waterproof packaging that could be used on any product.

The first synthetic, man-made substance was discovered in 1907 by Leo Baekeland. His creation was a liquid resin which he called Bakelite.  Baekeland had developed a Bakelizer, which he used to alter the temperature and pressure within the unit to control the reaction of chemicals. The Bakelizer allowed Baekeland to develop a liquid which hardened rapidly and took the shape of its container. Bakelite would not burn, boil, melt or dissolve in acids or solvents. Bakelite was the first thermoset plastic which would retain its shape and form. Products began to be manufactured using Bakelite as an additive. The United States military used it during WWII for light-weight weapons and war machinery. Bakelite was also introduced as an electrical insulation. Today, it is still used for household purposes since it is electrically resistant, chemically stable, heat resistant, shatterproof and does not crack, fade or discolor when exposed to the elements.

By the 1920s, Wallace Hume Carothers, a DuPont chemist developed nylon, which he referred to as Fiber 66, a tough plastic that replaced animal hair in toothbrushes and natural silk stockings. Womens‘ hosiery called “Nylons” were not actually introduced until 1939. Carothers also found that by substituting and adding elements into the chemical chain of Fiber 66, new materials could be made.

Another milestone in plastic history, was the development of polyvinyl chloride by Waldo Semon, a BF Goodrich chemist. Semon was trying to adhere rubber to metal when he discovered PVC was durable, inexpensive and easily molded.

In 1933, Ralph Wiley, a Dow Chemical employee, accidentally discovered polyvinylidene chloride, which Dow named Saran. Saran would cling to almost anything, which is how the brand became a household name. Also, in 1933, E.W. Fawcett and R.O. Gibson discovered polyethylene when they combined ethylene and benzaldehyde under extremely high pressure. The experiment failed when the test tube lost pressure, but what they found upon cleaning up was a waxy plastic-like substance that could be mass produced.  And yet in another accident, Roy Plunkett, of DuPont, discovered Teflon when he pumped freon gas into a cylinder he had placed in cold storage for a night in 1938. The gas dissipated into a white powder which proved to be impervious to acids and extreme temperatures. Thus many housewives have come to love it’s effectiveness in the kitchen.

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Last modified: November 21, 2002