When did alexander parkes invent plastic

Alexander parkes education
Alexander parkes plastic
Alexander parkes cause of death

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Alexander Parkes Biography

The history of plastic industry is filled with great inventions, but the most important of them all came from the Englishman Alexander Parkes (1813 - 1890) who singlehandedly managed to discover fully synthetic plastic and introduce it to the world as one of the most important building materials we ever created. Even though he never managed to become rich with his inventions, his creation of synthetic plastic called Parkesine sparked the minds of countless inventors, who tirelessly worked to perfect new formulas and enable plastic to become one of the most common place building compounds in the world.

Alexander Parkes was born in Birmingham, England, on December 29, 1813 as a son of brass lock manufacturer. Ever since his young age he apprenticed with his father and eventually went to become apprentice at Messenger and Sons (famous brass founders of Birmingham) and George and Henry Elkington. His work with metals and brass foundries enabled him to get a firm grip on several processes of electroplating (applying thin layers of metal on various items)

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Parkes, Alexander 1813 - 1890

(1813-1890), chemist, metallurgist and inventor

Alexander Parkes, born on the 29th December 1813 in Birmingham, was the inventor of what is now recognised as the first fully synthetic plastic. His new material, which he called Parkesine, was first shown at the 1862 International Exhibition, held at South Kensington, London.

Parkes was apprenticed to Messenger & Sons, brass-founders, Birmingham, and subsequently went to work for Elkington & Co. In 1841, he secured his first patent (No. 8905) for the electrodeposition of works of art. He described himself in his earlier patents as an artist, but subsequently as chemist. From 1850 to 1853 Parkes was at Pembrey, south Wales, superintending the erection of copper smelting works for Elkington and Mason, and to this period belongs his method of using zinc for the desilverization of lead, which was first patented in 1850. It was perhaps one of the most important of his inventions.

Parkes was an exceedingly prolific inventor, filing sixty-six patents over a period of forty-six years

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PARKES, Alexander 1813-1890. Inventor.

Sometimes described as ‘the father of plastics’, Alexander Parkes spent the last five years of his life in West Dulwich, at 32 Park Hall Road (which has a blue plaque), 8 Chancellor Grove and 61 Rosendale Road, where he died. Born in Birmingham, Parkes was apprenticed as an art metal worker, and became head of the casting department of Elkingtons, manufacturers of metal products. He had outstanding inventive abilities and registered over 60 patents, including for electro-plating, a cold curing process of vulcanisation and smelting of metals by blasts of hot air.

Parkes’s most notable achievement was to produce a semi-synthetic mouldable plastic, which he called ‘Parkesine’. Models and household items, such as combs and buttons, made of this material were exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition in Hyde Park and at the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition, where on both occasions he was awarded medals. Unfortunately, the material was highly combustible, and his business failed. The invention was refined by an American company, which renamed