1. Why Did Anyone Need a Substitute for Ivory?
In the mid-1800s, billiards was booming in the United States, and the best balls were turned from elephant tusks. Michael Phelan, a champion player who ran one of the biggest billiard-ball companies, complained that good ivory was "dreadfully dear," and a historical note in the MRS Bulletin says only about one tusk in fifty was good enough for a ball. [1] Around 1864 he advertised a prize of $10,000 for anyone who could make an artificial ball. [1][2]
A printer from Albany, New York, John Wesley Hyatt, took up the challenge. His first composite balls of wood pulp and shellac did not feel like ivory. The breakthrough came from mixing nitrocellulose, a material made from cotton or wood fiber treated with acids, with camphor, a waxy white substance from the camphor laurel tree. The camphor made the mixture soft enough to mold and tough once it cooled. [1] Hyatt and his brother Isaiah received a U.S. patent for this process in 1870, and the material was named "celluloid." [2]
Did Hyatt win the prize? Sources disagree: a Japanese encyclopedia says he did, while two English-language histories say the prize was probably never awarded. [6][2] What is safe to say is that celluloid was among the first thermoplastics, plastics that can be softened by heat and shaped again; the MRS Bulletin note calls it the first, while the Plastics Hall of Fame says its British predecessor Parkesine is also counted among the first. [1][2] That made it perfect for mass-produced toys. The question is why the toys came from Japan.
2. How Did Japanese Factories End Up Selling Kewpie Dolls Overseas?
Start with the doll. Kewpie was drawn by the American illustrator Rose O'Neill in 1909: a baby-like figure with tiny wings. In 1913 a German company made porcelain Kewpie dolls. Then the First World War wrecked German industry, and the Japan Toy Museum says Japanese celluloid versions stepped into the empty world market. [3] (In Japan today, "Kewpie" is also the logo of a well-known food company, so many people there know the name from the kitchen.)
The factories were already there. Celluloid goods such as combs, pencil cases and toys were made in Japan from the early 1910s into the 1960s, and the Katsushika district in eastern Tokyo was packed with workshops. [5] A city museum says the number of celluloid toy factories there "exploded" after 1916. [4] Workers pressed two thin celluloid sheets into a heated mold and blew air in, like inflating a balloon inside a metal shell, and most toys were made this way. [4]
Prices stayed low: small and large Kewpies sold at home in Japan for between 10 sen and 1 yen, and a yen is 100 sen. [3] Some of the dolls went abroad as Christmas-tree ornaments. [5]
By 1927 Japan was number one. But "number one" depends on who is counting: the Japan Toy Museum says Japan led the world in export value, while the Katsushika museum says it led in the number of toys produced. [3][5] Either way, cheap factories and an empty market were only part of the answer. Celluloid also needed camphor.
3. Where Did the Camphor for Celluloid Come From?
Camphor is a clear crystal with a sharp smell, taken from camphor trees. It is used in medicines and was long used to keep moths away from clothes. [4] In celluloid it acts as a plasticizer, a helper that lets the stiff nitrocellulose molecules slide past each other. [6] The camphor oil in the Hyatt story is said to have come from the island of Formosa, now called Taiwan. [1]
Here is the part that is easy to skip. Japan ruled Taiwan as a colony from 1895 (after a war with China) until 1945, and the Japan Toy Museum says Japan obtained large amounts of good camphor from there. [3] A Japanese encyclopedia explains that the 1930s world lead in celluloid production was due to cheap natural camphor from the former colony, and another entry says production topped 10,000 tonnes a year around 1936-39. [6] So Japan's lead rested partly on a raw material from a place it governed as a colony. This article does not cover what that arrangement meant for the people living there.
Cheap camphor helped Japan win its place in the market. But the biggest problem for celluloid toys was not supply at all.
4. Why Did Celluloid Toys Disappear?
Hyatt himself noticed the problem early. Nitrocellulose is chemically close to guncotton, an explosive, and he wrote that a lighted cigar would start a flame in a celluloid ball and that hard collisions sometimes made a small bang like a toy cap gun. He even described a Colorado saloon owner who reported that every man in the room reached for his gun. [1]
Toys were less dramatic, but the fire risk was real. Celluloid softens at around 85-100 °C (185-212 °F), a dictionary says it burns quickly above 190 °C (about 374 °F), and a Tokyo museum puts the ignition point at 170 °C (about 338 °F), so figures differ by source. [6][4] The museum says friction alone could set it off, and that this flammability caused many fires. [4] From the early 1950s, as exports to the United States fell, the Katsushika celluloid toy factories closed one after another, and none make toys today. [4]
Soft vinyl, a rubbery plastic, took over. The Japan Toy Museum describes a switch from highly flammable celluloid to soft vinyl from the mid-1950s onward, and Kewpie dolls are still loved today. [3] A second reason is in the dictionary: after the Second World War, cheaper and better plastics appeared, and celluloid production dropped to under 2,000 tonnes a year. [6] Celluloid had one more place to show up, though, and it was a sports hall.
5. Why Did Table Tennis Switch From Celluloid Balls in 2014?
For decades, ping-pong balls were celluloid too. The Katsushika museum notes that many were shaped by a "hot-water squeezing" method, which used heated water to form celluloid into rounds, work that a couple could do in a tiny room. [4]
From July 1, 2014, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) required plastic composite balls for its sanctioned events and world championships. [7] Its press release gave three reasons: most countries no longer wanted to make celluloid because it catches fire so easily; celluloid balls cannot be shipped on planes without special fire-proof containers; and plastic balls are safer and cheaper to make. [7] The ITTF president said the change was "more for necessity rather than by design," because the celluloid sheets used for the balls were becoming harder to get. [7]
The new balls were not meant to play very differently, and the ITTF kept their specifications close to celluloid ones so that players would barely notice. [7] Celluloid balls are still legal for events that choose them. [7] So one material ran through three eras: ivory's replacement, a global doll, and a ping-pong ball. Its best qualities, easy shaping and low cost, came packaged with the thing that finally pushed it out.
6. How Can You Look for This Story Yourself?
You can start with ordinary things. Check the labels on a toy, a ball or a comb, and write down what each is made of. For each material, ask which of its qualities, such as softness, strength, price or weight, the maker was probably counting on.
If you ever find a very old doll, comb or toy and think it might be celluloid, keep it away from heat, flames and sparks, and do not test it by burning. Museums store old celluloid separately from other objects, because it can also give off acidic gas as it ages. A museum visit is the safest way to see real examples.
For more reading, the MRS Bulletin note [1] and the Plastics Hall of Fame story [2] tell the billiard-ball side in English. The Katsushika and Japan Toy Museum pages [4][3] are in Japanese, but their photographs and place names are worth a look with a translation tool.