1917] on Cellulose and Chemical Industry (1866-1916) 28 



in important proportion preserves the general structural details of 

 the original. This intimate combination of cellulose with inorganic 

 matter is a characteristic property of colloids of which cellulose is 

 the prototype. It is the basis of innumerable processes incidental to 

 the dyeing and colouring of cellulose fabrics and tissues. But the 

 production of a combustion skeleton for utilization as an industrial 

 product is a modern and noteworthy realization of a primary cellulose 

 quality " strong even in death." 



The familiar incandescence gas mantle is the skeleton of a textile 

 material impregnated as such, or as we may say, " in the flesh," with 

 colloidal thorium and cerium oxides, and afterwards cremated. 



Of the cellulose industries of Group B, those (1) based on the 

 nitric esters are of preponderating importance, for they include the 

 production of the modern military explosives, and they connote 

 developments in pure and applied science peculiarly characteristic of 

 the age. Cellulose nitrate not only fulfils the ideal of chemical effect, 

 i.e. total conversion of solid into gaseous matter, at maximum increase 

 of volume (or pressure) further increased by the temperature of com- 

 bustion, but is a stable form of this high chemical potential, and 

 further owing to its colloidal plastic properties can be moulded into 

 any desired form, and is therefore able to meet the most exacting 

 specification of ballistic requirements. There is no doubt that 

 mankind is directly indebted for its " smokeless " powders and the 

 basis of the vast developments of modern military power to the 

 pioneer work of Alfred Nobel and his collaborators. 



The lower degrees of " nitration " of cellulose are represented by 

 products which are the basis of "celluloid," and the celluloid 

 industries connote the production of a large number of familiar 

 objects both useful and ornamental, and a progressively increased 

 production from the date of the pioneer work of the American 

 inventor, Hyatt (1869).* 



Celluloid realizes a very high order of plasticity, and it is this 

 structural potentiality which enables it to maintain its industrial 

 leadership in spite of its disadvantages of high inflammability, 

 frequently and tragically manifested, 



(2) The analogues of the nitric esters are the acetic esters of 

 cellulose, derivatives which are necessarily colloids with plastic capa- 

 bilities, water-resistant as are the nitrates, and with a higher order of 

 resistance to heat (unchanged at 200' C), and the ordinary inflam- 

 mability of organic substances. Important uses of the cellulose 

 acetates already established are : {ct) in aeroplane construction, for 

 treating to render taut and impermeable the textile fabric which 

 constitutes the air-resistant surface of the wings ; {h) in the form of 

 film, as the " emulsion-film " support in photographic work, notably 

 for the preparation of the continuous cinema picture ; (c) for a 



See Journ. Soc. Chem. Ind., xxxiii. (1914), p. 225. 



