2 : a motion-picture film a work … making its third appearance on celluloid — John McCarten. Keep scrolling for more. It was used to make a variety of objects that are now collectibles until about 1940.
Celluloid is a type of plastic that’s transparent and flammable. In the same year, John Wesley Hyatt patented at the US Patent Office as Celluloid. It is a product of cellulose dinitrate blended with pigments, fillers, camphor, and alcohol to make a unique synthetic material categorized as a plastic. Because of its use in making films, this … Celluloid is actually a trade name, like Band-Aid or Kleenex, but the term has been generically used for many years to reference a type of plastic material invented in the mid-1800s. Although flammable, celluloid is also extremely durable, making it useful for a … Celluloid originated in 1856, when Alexander Parkes created Parkesine, generally considered the first thermoplastic. Definition of celluloid. 1 : a tough flammable thermoplastic composed essentially of cellulose nitrate and camphor. Parkesine plastics were made by dissolving nitrocellulose (a flammable nitric ester of cotton or wood cellulose) in solvents such as alcohol or wood naphtha and mixing in plasticizers such as vegetable oil or camphor (a waxy substance originally derived from the oils of … Celluloid was easily molded and shaped, and it was first widely used as an ivory replacement. Celluloid is so flammable that it will continue to burn even when dunked in water, making it a serious fire hazard, as one might imagine. Until recently, most movies were filmed on celluloid. It is also not very light stable, decaying rapidly when exposed to light.

Celluloid is a name for film used in shooting movies. In 1869, Daniel Spill, who had taken over Parkes' firm, renamed Parkesine as Xylonite.