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A brief history of plastic

TED-Ed · TED

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About

For centuries, billiard balls were made of ivory from elephant tusks. But when excessive hunting caused elephant populations to decline, they began to look for alternatives. John Wesley Hyatt took up the challenge. In five years, he invented a new material called celluloid, which would become known as the first plastic. Trace the history of the material that ushered in the "plastics century." [Directed by Sharon Colman, narrated by Addison Anderson, music by Miguel d'Oliveira].

The talk

  1. A brief history of plastic 6 min · TED's player

Credits and licence

Institution
TED
Department
TED-Ed
Speaker
TED-Ed
Year
2020
Level
For everyone
Language
English
Subjects
Engineering, Earth and environment, History, Art, architecture and design, Teaching and learning
Source
TED
Licence
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, as TED states it. Non-commercial use only, and no changed versions. TED's terms
Attribution
TED Talks are licensed by TED under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International and are shown here in TED's own player, as TED's usage policy asks.
Who can watch
TED gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Teens profiles and older, judged from what the source says about it. How courses are placed