Hyatt, Isaiah

What was the first synthetic plastic Although some nineteenth-century experiments should be mentioned, such as the 1869 molding process for cellulose nitrate discovered by John and Isaiah Hyatt, probably the first major breakthrough came in 1910 with Leo Baekeland s discovery of phenol formaldehyde resins (Bakelite ). These are still the leading thermoset plastics made today. The pioneering work of Wallace Carothers at Du Pont in 1929 produced the nylons now used primarily as fibers but known as the beginning of thermoplastic resin technology. 

In 1855, the moldable features of collodion were exploited by the British inventor and chemist Alexander Parkes, who marketed the material as Parkesine. Combs, earrings, buttons, bracelets, billiard balls, and even false teeth were manufactured in his factories. Parkes chose to focus more on quantity than on quality, however. Because he used low-grade cotton and cheap but unsuitable solvents, many of his products lacked durability, which led to commercial failure. In 1870, John Hyatt, a young inventor from Albany, New York, discovered that collodions moldable properties were vastly improved by using camphor as a solvent. Hyatts brother Isaiah named this camphor-based nitrocellulose material celluloid. Because of its greater workability, celluloid became the plastic of choice for the manufacture of many household items. In addition, thin transparent films of celluloid made excellent supports for photosensitive emulsions, a boon to the photography industry and a first step in the development of motion pictures. 

Commercial plastics began in 1868 when John and Isaiah Hyatt plasticized cellulose... 

The polymer industry got its start in 1863 when Phelan and Col-lander, a firm of billiard ball manufacturers, offered 10 000 to anyone who could develop a workable substitute for the ivory then used in making the balls. Ivory was becoming scarce as herds of elephants were killed for their tusks. John and Isaiah Hyatt of New jersey deveioped the plastic celluloid in 1870 while trying to make billiard balls, and it became popular for making dental plates, movie film, dice, and stiff collars and cuffs for men s shirts. However, the Hyatt brothers never got the 10 000 prize because billiard balls made from highly flammable celluloid tended to explode. 

At around the same time in the United States, a bilfiard ball company advertised a 10,000 reward for the discovery of an alternate material to ivory. John Wesley Hyatt developed collodion, a mixture of cellulose nitrate and alcohol. Like cellulose nitrate, collodion was highly flammable and would produce a small explosion upon agitation. Hyatt reported [W]e had a letter from a billiard saloon proprietor in Colorado mentioning this fact. . . saying he did not care so much about it, but that instantly every man in the room pulled a gun. To avoid melee, camphor, a derivative of the laurel tree, was added, and in 1870 Hyatt received a U.S. patent for celluloid. In 1871 Hyatt and his brother Isaiah formed the American Celluloid Company, which is today the Plastics Division of the Celanese Corporation. 

Researchers soon found that modifying the way in which cellulose nitrate is prepared could significantly change its chemical and physical properties, and, therefore, its uses. For example, the British inventor Alexander Parkes (1813-1890) experimented with using a variety of solutions to dissolve cellulose nitrate, after which the material could be precipitated in one or another form. At first he called the reformulated cellulose nitrate synthetic ivory, because of its similarity to natural ivory, but later referred to the product as parkesine, named after himself. He was unable to obtain financing needed for the commercial manufacture of his invention, however, and it fell to an American inventor, John Wesley Hyatt (1837-1920) to reinvent a similar product less than a decade later. Hyatt and his brother Isaiah developed a mixture of cellulose nitrate and camphor that was an even more... 

Alexander Parks modified cellulose with nitric acid to form cellulose nitrate and, by mixing this polymer with a plasticizer, he made a material named Parkesine. A few years later, a similar material named celluloid (cellulose nitrate plasticized with camphor) was patented by John and Isaiah Hyatt. 

Cellulose nitrate, also called nitrocellulose or gun cotton, first became prominent after Christian Schonbein prepared it in 1846. He was quick to recognize the commercial value of this material as an explosive, and within a year gun cotton was being manufactured. However, more important to the rise of the polymer industry, cellulose nitrate was found to be a hard elastic material which was soluble and could be moulded into different shapes by the application of heat and pressure. Alexander Parkes was the first to take advantage of this combination of properties and in 1862 he exhibited articles made from Parkesine, a form of plasticized cellulose nitrate. In 1870 John and Isaiah Hyatt patented a similar but more easily processed material, named celluloid, which was prepared using camphor as the plasticizer. Unlike Parkesine, celluloid was a great commercial success. 

The commercial history of synthetic resins and plastics can be traced to about 1869, when John Wesley Hyatt and his brother Isaiah, who were seeking a substitute for ivory, developed a practical process for converting cellulose nitrate into useful products." It was mixed with camphor and molded into dentures, billiard balls, toothbrushes, combs, dolls, and collars. This material, which was called celluloid, was one of the developments that made the early motion picture industry possible, as it also could be cast into transparent films of good optical quality. Because of its flammability and poor dur-... 

When the Hyatt brothers, John and Isaiah, built and patented the first injection moulding machine in 1872, it is doubtful if they could possibly have imagined the impact this invention would have on the world. It spawned a worldwide industry employing approximately 0.5 million workers in the US alone. 

---