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Launching the Polymer Industry |
In 1870, four years before the structure of the carbon atom was elucidated, American inventor John Wesley Hyatt won a contest to find a material for billiard balls to replace ivory--then as now in short supply. Hyatt's prize-winning contribution was celluloid , based on cellulose, a polymer that is the basic structural material of plant cell walls. It was the start of the polymer industry. Hyatt treated cellulose nitrate, or guncotton--an explosive material made by exposing cotton plant fibers to nitric and sulfuric acids--with alcohol and camphor. What he got was a hard, shiny material that could be molded when hot. Cheap and uniform in consistency, this new material did indeed replace ivory in billiard balls. Occasionally though, when the celluloid billiard balls collided, they created a small detonation like a firecracker because of the explosive nature of cellulose nitrate, which is related to trinitrotoluene (TNT) in composition. Celluloid also replaced horn in combs, found wide use in housewares, and was made into the first flexible photographic film. In 1887, Count Hilaire de Chardonnet created a related product when he learned to spin cellulose nitrate into Chardonnet silk, the first synthetic fiber to enter production and a forerunner of rayon, nylon, and Dacron.
Both celluloid and Chardonnet silk were polymers created by altering natural polymers. The first truly synthetic polymer did not come along until 1909, when American inventor Leo Baekelan treated phenol, or carbolic acid, another derivative of coal tar, with the preservative formaldehyde under heat and pressure. His product, Bakelite, was hard, immune to harsh chemicals, electrically insulating, and heat resistant--characteristics that made it useful for a myriad of household goods and electrical parts. Soon Bakelite was being used to make tools, machines, and cookingware. |
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