margin-right:0in">These properties make synthetic polymers excep-tionally useful, and since we learned how to create and manipulate them, polymers have become an essential part of our lives. Especially over the last 50 years plastics have saturated our world and changed the way that we live.

 

The First Synthetic Plastic

 

The first synthetic polymer was invented in 1869 by John Wesley Hyatt. Phelan & Collender, a New York firm, advertised a $10,000 reward for a suitable replacement for ivory.  The growing popularity of bil-liards had put a strain on the supply of natural ivory, obtained through the slaughter of wild elephants.[4] By treating cellulose, derived from cotton fiber, with camphor, Hyatt discovered a plastic (celluloid) that could be craft...

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