At the 1862 London International Exhibition, an inventor by the name of Andrew Parks introduced a new product based on cellulose that he called Park scene.

Little did he know that this material which could be made elastic when heated and molded into almost

any shape imaginable would become the basis for an enormous percentage of all the materials

in common use in the 21st century. Learn more about plastics, how they were invented and how they're used in the modern world

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. Plastics are really nothing more than a synthetic substance whose main ingredients are

polymers.

Polymers are very long molecules that consist of the same subunit over and over.

And in the case of plastics, they are almost always carbon-based organic molecules.

There are some substances that are natural plastics, in particular the sap from rubber trees which is used to make natural rubber. In fact the origin of plastics

can be directly tied to natural rubber. In 1839 American Charles Goodyear developed a

process called a Vulcanization which could harden natural rubber, which made it more useful

for many products.

The Goodyear Tire Company was named after him, but it wasn't actually founded by him.

It was founded almost 40 years after his death.

This experimentation with natural rubber eventually led to what is considered the birth of the modern plastics industry.

Park scene.

Andrew Park created a substance that was developed from cellulose, which is commonly found in plants and is what makes up most paper.

His Park scene is a type of plastic known as a celluloid.

Celluloids are created from nitrocellulose which is made by combining primarily nitric acid,

sulfuric acid, and cellulose.

Parks material won a medal at the 1862 London International Exhibition.

However, he was never able to convert his invention into a viable company,

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