Formaldehyde early developments, cellulose

Celluloid was one of the early plastics that was used in numerous ways. It was made of cellulose nitrate and was extremely combustible, but a safer version, cellulose acetate, was later developed. Dyed black, they are reasonable imitations of jet but th have a plasticy look and feel. Black celluloid gives a fldnt, black streak. Baikelite, or phenol formaldehyde, could be dyed any colour and was widely used. When dyed black, it was also a reasonable jet imitation, but it dulls with age and has a plasticl look and feel. Black Bakelite gives a black streak. 

One of the first man-made polymers was Parkesine, so named after its inventor Alexander Parkes. It was introduced in about 1862 but was not a commercial success (Fried, (1995)). However, this early effort led to the development of celluloid (cellulose nitrate) by John Hyatt in 1870 which was a commercial success. The first truly synthetic polymer was a phenol-formaldehyde resin called Bakelite developed in 1907 by Leo Baekeland but it would be two more decades before the nature of the polymerization process would be understood sufficiently to develop polymers based upon a rational process. 

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