Alexander
Parkes
(1813 - 1890)
invented
Parkesine
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Alexander
Parkes was born in 1813, the fourth of 8 children.
He was apprenticed to a brass founders, later
joining Elkington, Mason & Co. as manager of
a casting department. A prolific inventor, he
took out more than 80 patents, mostly related to
metallurgy.
He had 8 children by his first wife, remarrying
after her death, his second wife giving him a
further 12 children.
An interest in the newly formed rubber industry
led to patents in 1846 concerning 'cold'
vulcanisation and waste rubber reclamation.
He introduced a new material which he called Parkesine
at the 1862 International Exhibition in London
and for which he was awarded a prize medal. Parkesine
was based on cellulose nitrate and for it he
anticipated many of the subsequent uses of
plastics.
The Parkesine Company was established at Hackney
Wick in London in 1866 with the aim of supplying Parkesine
in quantity at a cost much below that of
India rubber or gutta percha.
The company was not successful, partly because of
attempts to keep the price under a shilling a
pound, and the company was liquidated in
1868. Nevertheless Parkes had laid the
foundations from which others would successfully
develop cellulose nitrate plastics - notably Celluloid
developed by Hyatt in USA
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