Americans' love of billiards paved the way for synthetic plastics

Re:Americans' love of billiards paved the way for synthetic ... by bluGill on Wednesday October 15, 2025 @12:22PM (#45594874)

It probably would have been invented anyway, by somebody - but when is not known. Billiards gave the first person reason to develop the idea once he saw it could work. There was a year of experimentation needed before it worked in the real world (though as the article notes a trained chemist could probably have figured out the working formula faster).

Everything we know could have been invented by someone else earlier if they had tried (many things depend on earlier inventions and so earlier is often only a few years). Most of them would be invented by someone else a few years latter as well. However we remember the person who invented it (and often the person who made it successful) and not the others who didn't.

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Re:Americans' love of billiards paved the way for synthetic ... by Validark on Wednesday October 15, 2025 @08:28PM (#45600129)

According to Wikipedia, Alexander Parkes created the first celluloid (later called "Parkesine") on purpose in 1855 (as mentioned in the article, Collodion already existed and, when dried, created a celluloid-like film). John Wesley Hyatt apparently acquired Parkes's patent.

Daniel Spill, who worked with Parkes directly in England, founded several companies with Parkes selling Celluloid in England.

Spill and Hyatt spent the better part of a decade in court against each other over who invented it first and who has the right to the patents. The judge ultimately ruled that both of them can continue their businesses, and that Parkes invented it first.

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