June: Celluloid

On June 15th, 1869 John Wesley & Isaiah Hyatt issued a U.S. patent for the first plastic, which they called 'Improved Method of Making Solid Collodion' No. 91,341.  The Hyatt brothers were the first to manufacture celluloid on an industrial scale with their Celluloid Manufacturing Company.

The RSC archive holds a book from 1912 called 'Celluloid: its manufacture, applications and substitutes' by Masselon, Roberts and Cillard (translated from the original French version).  The preface of the book makes the point that there was at that time, little literature relating to celluloid, especially considering it's extended use at that time in the early days of the movie industry.