John Wesley Hyatt

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HYATT, JOHN WESLEY (1837-1920). Hyatt is generally credited as being the father of the plastics industry. In 1869. he and his brother patented a mixture of cellulose nitrate and camphor which could be molded and hardened. Its lirsl commercial use was lor billiard balls. The TM Celluloid" was the first ever applied to a synthetic plastic ptoduci, it hammahtlity hazard limits its use. 

See Hyatt, John Wesley, nitrocellulose lacquer. See lacquer. 

Hyatt, John Wesley (1837-1920) During the 1860s John Wesley Hyatt developed cellulose nitrate plastic and successfully produced and marketed billiard balls as a less expensive alternative to ivory billiard balls. See cellulose nitrate plastic plastic history. 

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. 

More than a decade later, Parkes s invention was rediscovered by the American inventor John Wesley Hyatt (1837-1920). Hyatt was attempting to win a 10,000-prize offered by the Phelan and Collender... 

Mother Nature has provided humans with a mind-boggling array of natural products with nearly every conceivable set of physical properties and, therefore, an apparently endless variety of uses. And yet, human inventors have always tried to go Mom one better, producing synthetic products that are longer lasting, less expensive, more attractive, or preferable to "the real thing" in some other way. Such has been the case, for example, in the more than century-and-a-half development of plastics. One of the earliest pioneers in the evolution of the plastics industry was John Wesley Hyatt, an inventor who spent his whole life trying to devise new and better materials and improved methods for getting jobs done. 

In the 1870s the demand for ivory, which was harvested from the trunks of a rapidly dwindling supply of hapless elephants, was high and increasing. Ivory was a favorite of the rich and famous, who used it for items such as jewelry, piano keys, billiard balls, etc., and there was a desperate need to find new materials for some of these applications. Alexander Parkes, a prolific English inventor, and John Wesley Hyatt, a great American... 

The first plastic was a mixture of cellulose nitrate and camphor invented in the 1860s by John Wesley Hyatt it was given the TM Celluloid. In 1899 Spit-teler developed a method of hardening casein with formaldehyde and thus founded the casein plastics industry, e.g., small items such as buttons. The earliest high-volume plastic, a condensation product of phenol and formaldehyde, was introduced by Leo Baekeland in 1907. Trademarked Bakelite, it was the first truly synthetic high polymer. Its chief use was as engineering material since its dark color limited its application to items in which color was not a factor. 

Before the invention of plastic, elephant tusks were the main material used to make billiard balls. John Wesley Hyatt invented celluloid, a special kind of plastic, in 1868. Celluloid proved to be the perfect ingredient for creating billiard balls as well as movie film. 

In 1870, John Wesley Hyatt patented use of an excellent plasticizer for cellulose nitrate camphor ( ). This led to the successful launching of Celluloid. The combination of cellulose nitrate and camphor produced such an outstanding polymer composition that it stood as the standard of comparison for later plasticized compositions. Researchers began to study cellulose acetate as a less-flammable polymer base and to examine hundreds of substances to find a plasticizer that was analogous to camphor s performance in Celluloid. This search successively embraced other polymers as they became known. 

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... 

The plastics industry is recognized as having its beginnings in 1868 with the synthesis of cellulose nitrate. It all started with the shortage of ivory from which billiard balls were made. The manufacturer of these balls, seeking another production method, sponsored a competition. John Wesley Hyatt (in the U.S.) mixed pyroxin made from cotton (a natural polymer) and nitric acid with camphor. The result was cellulose nitrate, which he called celluloid. It is on record, however, that Alexander Parkes, seeking a better insulating material for the electrical industry, had in fact discovered that camphor was an efiflcient plasticizer for cellulose nitrate in 1862. Hyatt, whose independent discovery of celluloid came later, was the first to take out patents for this discovery. 

The American inventor John Wesley Hyatt (1837-1920), in an attempt to win a prize offered for an ivory substitute for billiard balls, began with pyroxylin. He dissolved it in a mixture of alcohol and ether, then added camphor to make it softer and more malleable. By 1869 he had formed what he called celluloid, and won the prize. Celluloid was the first synthetic plastic—2l material, that is, that can be molded into shape. 

Around 1870, John Wesley Hyatt, an American printer, attempted to win a 10000 prize by developing a substitute material for ivory billiard balls. Hyatt mixed cellulose nitrate with camphor, heated it under pressure and shaped it The product, known as celluloid, could be used to form boxes, wipe-clean linen shirt collars and cuffs, ping-pong balk, dolls and dental plates, which were made from ebonite in the early nineteenth century (Figure 2.1). Because cellulose nitrate softens on warming (thermoplasticity) it was not an ideal material for fake teeth, which curfed when the wearer drank hot coffee. Its... 

This discovery was first applied commercially in 1868, when celluloid was produced by John Wesley Hyatt. Phthalic esters were recognised as plasticizers from 1880 when they were used in celluloid in place of camphor. 

Braconnet in 1833, is the oldest of the synthetic plastics. It is made by treating fibrous cellulose with a mbcture of nitric and sulfuric acids, and was first used in the form of a lacquer (See collodion). In 1870, John Wesley Hyatt and his brother patented the use of plasticized cellulose nitrate as a solid, moldable material, the first commercial thermoplastic (celluloid). Camphor was the first (and is still the best) plasticizer for CN, although many camphor substitutes have been developed. Alcohol is normally used as a volatile solvent to assist in plasticization, after which it is removed. Molded products of CN are extremely tough, but highly flammable and subject to discoloration in sunlight. CN is amendable to many decorative variations. Its principal uses today are in knife handles, table-teimis balls, and eyeglass frames. A mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids converts cellulose into cellulose nitrate pyroxylin is a less nitrated material and it has been useful for photographic film, collodion, and celluloid plastics. 

Several English and American inventors obtained patents on appUcations of Pyroxiline plastics. The most significant patents were those obtained by John Wesley Hyatt for molding mixtures of Pyroxiline and camphor under heat and pressure in 1869 and in the 1870 s (7). His brother, Isiah Smith Hyatt coined the name "Celluloid" and registered this trademark in the U.S. Patent Office. 

Some scientists credit John Wesley Hyatt with the invention of synthetic plastics. However, ebonite, which is... 

Celluloid (John Wesley Hyatt) American inventor Hyatt produces celluloid, the first commercially successful plastic, by mixing solid pyroxylin and camphor. 

Although concepts leading to the manufacture of plastics evolved during the 1860 s, the official appearance is generally regarded as 1870 when John Wesley Hyatt patented celluloid. This material found many uses, such as stays for shirt collars and cuffs, but had a major deficiency In that it burned easily. In 1909, Leo Baekeland Introduced a fire-resistant, all synthetic plastic called Bakelite which pointed the way to the Invention of dozens of successor thermosets. 

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