As the result of a careful investigation, he traced back the materials that made up the collodion and found among them nitrocellulose - or guncotton. After still more experimentation, he found a way, under heat and pressure, to mold guncotton together with alcohol and camphor - something no educated chemist would have done at that time. But Hyatt tried this experiment, and out of the mold came a hard, clear substance which he called" Celluloid" - the first of the great family of plastics which, with the exception of vulcanized rubber, marked the beginning of the great new plastic industry. This new material was not good enough for a billiard ball so he sold his patents and another man started the new industry. But the most important thing that came out of Hyatt's celluloid was the chain of experiments it started, and the new uses that were found for this material. |