This Day in Science History - June 29 - Parkesine

June 28th marks the passing of the man who introduced us to plastic. Alexander Parkes was a British chemist and metallurgist who created the first thermoplastic which he called Parkesine. Parkesine was a nitrocellulose compound that aroused great public interest when it was introduced at the 1862 Grand International Expedition. Parkes established a business to exploit its popularity, but ultimately failed within two years for two reasons. The first, Parkes would reduce quality to make his products less expensive. The second, and probably more important, Parkesine is highly flammable. Consumers did not like cheap plastic products that burned really easily.

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