A Bridge to the 18th Century: American Plastic

American Plastic Plastic significants have become so numerous that you cannot go through a single day without woful something made of plastic. Toothbrushes, ballpoint pens, unbreakable dishes, cabinets and knobs for machines and appliances, light switches ? all of these things and many more are made of plastic. It seems hard to believe that in the beginning 1869, there was no such thing as plastic. The premier plastic, moving-picture show, was invented in 1869 by John Wesley Hyatt, (Meikle 5). A $10,000 prize had been offered to anyone who invented a material that could replace ivory for making billiard balls. In his experiments, Hyatt dissolved nitrocellulose and camphor in alcohol. This produced a solid, white material that could be pressed into blocks. The celluloid blocks could consequently be break off and ground into billiard balls. Mr. Hyatt won the prize and patented his subterfuge (10, 11). For more that 40 years afterward, Hyatts celluloid was the only soma of plastic. Manufacturers began making it into combs and brushes, buttons, piano keys, handles, and stiff collards and cuffs for mens shirts (24, 25). semisynthetic also became the main(prenominal) material for making plates for false teeth. The celluloid plastic was lighter and had less taste than the hard hawkshaw that had previously been used to hold false teeth.

George Eastman, a shaper of photographic equipment, invented a way to make celluloid film. Photographers until then had been taking pictures on chemically treated glass plates. The main problem with celluloid was that it caught fire easily. In 1909, Leo Hendrik Baekeland, a Belgian chemist living in New Jersey, invented a new kind of plastic called Bakelite. Bakelite was hard to burn and out of the question to melt. Telephone sets were among the first products made from Bakelite (34-50). Since the early 1900s, many assorted plastics have been developed, each having a special characteristic or advantage that makes it good for various purposes. Some plastics stood... If you want to unsex a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

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