Celluloid, trade name

Celluloid (trade name) plastics consisting of celluse nitrate and camphor. Very flammable. Produced as sheet, rod and tube. One of the first plastics. 

The first commercially available acetal resin was marketed by Du Pont in 1959 under the trade name Delrin after the equivalent of ten million pounds had been spent in research or polymers of formaldehyde. The Du Pont monopoly was unusually short lived as Celcon, as acetal copolymer produced by the Celanese Corporation, became available in small quantities in 1960. This material became commercially available in 1962 and later in the same year Farbwerke Hoechst combined with Celanese to produce similar products in Germany (Hostaform). In 1963 Celanese also combined with the Dainippon Celluloid Company of Osaka, Japan and Imperial Chemical Industries to produce acetal copolymers in Japan and Britain respectively under the trade names Duracon and Alkon (later changed to Kematal). In the early 1970s Ultraform GmbH (a joint venture of BASF and Degussa) introduced a copolymer under the name Ultraform and the Japanese company Asahi Chemical a homopolymer under the name Tenal. 

Although originally a trade name the term celluloid has come into general use to describe camphor-plasticised cellulose nitrate compositions. 

The first partially synthetic polymer dates back to 1869, when cellulose (wood pulp) was nitrated (nitrocellulose). The cellulose became ptocessible, and with the further addition of camphor (which acted as a plasticizer), it became a clear, tough, moldable product with the trade name Celluloid. It was widely used at the end of the 19th century in the form of combs, brushes, photographic film, and shirt collars. 

The development of plastics accompanied synthetic fibers. The first synthetic plastic with the trade name Celluloid was made in 1870 from a form of nitrocellulose called pyroxylin, the same substance used to produce the first rayon. Celluloid was developed in part to meet the demand for expensive billiard balls, which at the end of the nineteenth century were produced from ivory obtained from elephant tusks. John Wesley Hyatt (1837-1920) combined pyroxylin with ether and alcohol to produce a hard substance called collodion. Hyatt s collodion, like Bernigaut s original rayon, was unstable and potentially explosive. He solved this problem by adding camphor to the collodion to produce a stable hard plastic he called Celluloid. 

Finally, the plastic is made into sheets, strips, rods, or tubes, seasoned to remove the residual solvent, and polished by pressing under low heat. This plastic possesses excellent workability, water resistance, and toughness. Its chief disadvantage is the ease with which it bums. It also discolors and becomes brittle on aging. The trade name is Celluloid. 

Cellulose nitrate is a semi-synthetic plastic based on cellulose from wood or cotton. It is mixed with nitric and sulphuric acids, and uses camphor as a plasticiser. It is another compound that was being developed by various people in different places at the same time, but was launched in England in 1862 as Parkesine . It was later called Xylonite . Cellulose nitrate was finally patented in America in 1870 under the name celluloid , but has been known by over 60 different trade names during the years it has been in production. 

Trade names and synonyms Xylonite , Parkesine , Durofix , Celluloid , nitrocellulose, nitrocotton, gun cotton, pyroxylin, French ivory... 

By trade name or common natne. The trade or proprietary name is assigned by the product manufacturer, and they emphasize merchandise or variety, for example, the trade name of polyamide is nylon other trade names include, for example, Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene) and Celluloid (nitrocellulose). Names such as organic glass (polyfmethyl methacrylate)), Bakelite (phenolic resin), and electric jade (urea formaldehyde resin) have also been widely used. 

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