Ghost of a flea: Cellophane

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January 22, 2005

Cellophane

Fascinating facts about the invention of cellophane by Jacques Brandenberger in 1908.

Jacques Brandenberger, a Swiss chemist, was not trying to make something to cover your pork chops in 1908. He worked in a French textile firm and was looking for a way to make a stain proof tablecloth. He tried coating the cloth with a thin sheet of viscose film. No one would buy the tablecloths, but Brandenberger realized that the sheet of film held possibilities.

I am working on an assignment for my technology and society course: "The Secret Life of Objects" or something to that effect... I have reading Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination" as a meditation on social change brought about by teleportation and am thinking along those lines for the less fantastic but no less extraordinary technologies we use all the time.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at January 22, 2005 09:07 AM

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Comments

There's an prof at the U. of Illinois who's job is to write essays on engineering and daily life. (Web site here.)

Not all of his essays are appropriate for your purposes, but quite a bit is.

Posted by: redgranger at January 23, 2005 12:59 PM