Objects made from Parkesine, c 1860.

UNITED KINGDOM - OCTOBER 24: Parkesine is thought to have been the first semi-synthetic plastic, a mouldable cellulose nitrate which was invented by Alexander Parkes (1813-1890). It was made of cotton fibres dissolved in nitric and sulphuric acids and mixed with vegetable oil. It was softened by heat and then moulded or hand-carved. Parkesine's great disadvantage, however, was its high flammability. Although Parkes took out a number of patents for his newly discovered material in the 1860s, it was not until the Hyatt brothers of New Jersey developed it ias celluloid that its commercial potential began to be realised. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)