From plastic guttering to plastic sheets and wall cladding, plastic now plays an important role in our everyday lives. At Bliby Plastics, we supply all these items as well as fascias, plastic cladding and so forth. This versatile material has, like other materials used by humans, gone through an albeit short but nevertheless important process of evolution.
In 1862, there was an exhibition known as The Great International Exhibition to show the developments of the day, the Victorians loved to experiment with just about everything and were great inventors. The exhibition gave a man called Alexander Parkes the opportunity to demonstrate Parkesine which was derived from cellulose. Once it was heated, it could be moulded into different shapes and would retain that shape when it was cooled.
Cellulose, when mixed with camphor, formed celluloid which could be used, instead of ivory, to make billiard balls. Celluloid was invented in 1868 by John Hyatt, who also created celluloid in the form of a strip for motion pictures as well as still photography.
The next important advance in the early history of plastic was the use of formaldehyde. Towards the latter part of the last decade of the 19th century, the making of white chalkboards was attempted. These efforts brought about the development of casein plastics. Basically casein plastic was formaldehyde blended with milk protein.
In 1907, after improving a technique known as phenol-formaldehyde reaction, an inventor, Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite, which was the first completely synthetic resin that would become a commercial success. Bliby Plastics supply a great range of plastics, from plastic guttering to plastic sheets.
