Parkesine

material

Also known as: Xylonite

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Last updated

July 1, 2026

Quick Summary

Parkesine was an early synthetic plastic developed by British chemist Alexander Parkes in 1856. It was made from nitrocellulose mixed with alcohols, camphor, and oils. This material was hard yet flexible, and could be cast, stamped, painted, dyed, or carved.12

Parkesine predated celluloid, which was developed in the 1860s and 1870s from nitrocellulose and camphor. Celluloid became the first commercially successful synthetic plastic, used for items like combs, piano keys, and photographic film. While early plastics like Parkesine and celluloid were significant innovations, they were eventually replaced by more versatile and less flammable materials in the 20th century.324

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celluloid
…plastic material that he called Parkesine. Parkesine plastics were made by dissolving nitrocellulose (a flammable nitric ester of cotton or wood cellulose) in solvents such as alcohol or wood naphtha and mixing in plasticizers such as vegetable oil or camphor (a waxy substance originally derived from the oils of the…
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…plastic material that he called Parkesine. Parkesine plastics were made by dissolving nitrocellulose (a flammable nitric ester of cotton or wood cellulose) in solvents such as alcohol or wood naphtha and mixing in plasticizers such as vegetable oil or camphor (a waxy substance originally derived from the oils of the…
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history of technology
Plastics
…material to be manufactured was Parkesine, developed by the British inventor Alexander Parkes. Parkesine, made from a mixture of chloroform and castor oil, was “a substance hard as horn, but as flexible as leather, capable of being cast or stamped, painted, dyed or carved.” The words are from a guide…
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…material to be manufactured was Parkesine, developed by the British inventor Alexander Parkes. Parkesine, made from a mixture of chloroform and castor oil, was “a substance hard as horn, but as flexible as leather, capable of being cast or stamped, painted, dyed or carved.” The words are from a guide…
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Alexander Parkes
…produced a flexible material called Parkesine (1856) from various mixtures of nitrocellulose, alcohols, camphor, and oils that predated the development of the first plastic, celluloid.
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…produced a flexible material called Parkesine (1856) from various mixtures of nitrocellulose, alcohols, camphor, and oils that predated the development of the first plastic, celluloid.
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major industrial polymers
Cellulose nitrate
…British inventor Alexander Parkes patented Parkesine, a plastic made from a liquid solution of nitrocellulose in wood naphtha, and in 1867 Parkes’s coworker Daniel Spill produced Xylonite, a mixture of nitrocellulose, camphor, and castor oil. In the United States John W. Hyatt produced the first commercially successful plastic in the…
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…British inventor Alexander Parkes patented Parkesine, a plastic made from a liquid solution of nitrocellulose in wood naphtha, and in 1867 Parkes’s coworker Daniel Spill produced Xylonite, a mixture of nitrocellulose, camphor, and castor oil. In the United States John W. Hyatt produced the first commercially successful plastic in the…
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