[loosely f. CELLUL-OSE sb. + -OID.]
An artificial substance composed chiefly of cellulose, and much used as a substitute for ivory, bone, coral, etc., in the manufacture of knife-handles, piano-keys, billiard-balls, etc.
Invented in America, and first patented in Gt. Britain in April 1871, as a material for dental plates. In its manufacture the cellulose is first reduced by acids to pyroxyline (gun-cotton), camphor is then added, and the mixture subjected to immense hydraulic pressure. It may then be molded by heat and pressure to any shape, and it becomes hard, elastic, and capable of taking on a fine finish. (The Specification of Hyatt’s first British patent (1871, No. 1025) does not contain the name.)
1871. Brit. Jrnl. Dental Sc., XIV. 364. The material is named the celluloid base, so called from the material of which it is composed.
1872. Specif. Hyatt’s Patent, No. 3101. The … manufacture of pyroxyline or soluble cotton into a solid (which is herein denominated ‘celluloid’).
1881. Chamb. Jrnl., No. 909. 349. Celluloid … is an imitation ivory composed of collodion and camphor.
1882. Whitaker’s Almanack, 375/2. One of the most recent uses of the celluloid is for making type and engravers’ blocks for printing from.
