The Invention of Plastic: British Imperialists, American Businessmen, and Taiwanese Camphor, 1860–95
Saturday, January 7, 2017: 9:10 AM
Governor's Square 14 (Sheraton Denver Downtown)
Matthew Combs, University of California, Irvine
Set against the background of Sino-British international relations, an arrogant Scottish merchant, a stubborn Chinese official, a hot headed British naval officer, and a host of Taiwanese petty merchants all accidentally helped a tinkerer in Albany, New York invent the first plastic: Celluloid. This paper argues that the invention of this first plastic was made possible by the unintended consequences of the actions of British imperialists on Taiwan in the 1860s. Seeking to force their way into the lucrative export of the luxury commodity camphor, British merchants secured the military backing of their navy and successfully pressed local Chinese officials to change the policies governing the camphor trade and open up the market. The British, however, did not foresee that this opening would lead to greater production, increased participation by smaller scale Chinese merchant houses, and a crash in the market price for camphor to the point where British merchants could not turn a profit.
The new lower price for camphor made possible its profitable use in industrial applications. Camphor became an essential ingredient in the invention of celluloid plastic, a material produced from a mixture of nitrocellulose and camphor, initially used to make imitation ivory, tortoise shell, and animal horn for use in jewelry, glasses frames, and many other products. George Eastman adopted the use of celluloid as a backing for film in his Kodak camera, which introduced the era of the snapshot and amateur photography. Eastman also supplied the new flexible film to Thomas Edison for use in cinematography. These were the main successful and lucrative American industries built upon the import of camphor from East Asia from the late 1860s onward. These major inventions of the modern era would not have been possible without the small-scale actors on the small island of Taiwan.
