Where was alexander parkes born

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    • Alexander Parkes

    English engineer, metallurgist and inventor

    Alexander Parkes

    Born29 December

    Suffolk Street, Birmingham, England

    Died29 June &#;() (aged&#;76)
    NationalityEnglish
    OccupationEngineer
    Engineering career
    ProjectsParkesine

    Alexander Parkes (29 December &#;&#; 29 June ) was a metallurgist and inventor from Birmingham, England.

    He created Parkesine, the first man-made plastic.

    Biography

    The son of a manufacturer of brasslocks, Parkes was apprenticed to Messenger and Sons, brass founders of Birmingham, before going to work for George and Henry Elkington, who patented the electroplating process.[1] Parkes was put in charge of the casting department, and his attention soon began to focus on electroplating.

    Parkes took out his first patent (No. ) in on a process for electroplating delicate works of art. His improved method for electroplating fine and fragile objects, such as flowers, was granted a patent in The process involved electroplating an object previously dipped in a solution of phosphorus contained in bisulphide of carbon, and then in nitrate of silver.

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    • A spider's web, silver-plated according to this method, was presented to Prince Albert when he visited the Elkington works in

    In total Parkes held at least 66 patents on processes and products, mostly related to electroplating and to development of plastics.

    • In , he patented the cold cure process for vulcanizing rubber, called by Thomas Hancock "one of the most valuable and extraordinary discoveries of the age".[2]
    • He pioneered the addition of small quantities of phosphorus to metals and alloys, and developed phosphor-bronze (patent of , taken out jointly with his brother Henry Parkes).[3]
    • In , he developed and patented the Parkes process for economically desilvering lead, also patenting refinements to the process in and [4]
    • In , he patented Parkesine&#;&#; the first thermoplastic&#;&#; a celluloid based on nitrocellulose treated with a variety of solvents.[5] This material, exhibited at the London International Exhibition, anticipated many of the modern aesthetic and utility uses of plastics.
    • In , he set up The Parkesine Company at Hackney Wick, London, for bulk low-cost production.

      It was not commercially successful, however, for Parkesine was expensive to produce, prone to cracking and highly flammable. The business closed in

    • Parkes' material was developed later in improved form as Xylonite by his associate Daniel Spill, who brought a patent infringement lawsuit&#;&#; ultimately unsuccessful&#;&#; against John Wesley Hyatt, developer of celluloid in the US.

      In , however, the judge ruled that Parkes was the true inventor, owing to his original experiments.

    Personal and family details

    Alexander Parkes was born at Suffolk Street, Birmingham, the fourth son of James Mears Parkes and his wife Kerenhappuch Childs. Samuel Harrison, described by Sir Josiah Mason as the inventor of the split-ring (or key-ring) and widely credited with the invention of the steel pen, was his great-uncle.[6] Parkes was twice married.

    Inventor alexander parkes biography children: Parkes is best remembered for his invention of what would later be developed into plastics. Notes on castings of copper, steel and other iron alloys made in Sheffield. Archived from the original on 29 September Spill sued John Wesley Hyatt, who was credited with the invention of celluloid in the United States, but lost the case.

    By his first marriage, to Jane Henshall Moore (–50), he had four sons and two daughters (the cricketer Howard Parkes was a grandson), and by his second marriage, to Mary Ann Roderick (–), four sons and seven daughters. The elder surviving son of his second marriage, Alexander Parkes junior, sometime President of the Association of Certified and Corporate Accountants, presented many original specimens of Parkesine to the Science Museum in , the core of the museum's Parkesine collection.[7]

    Parkes' younger brother Henry (–), a trained chemist, who was married to Fanny Roderick (–97), a sister of Alexander's second wife, assisted him in many of his experiments during a collaboration lasting more than fifty years.[8]

    It is believed that the Parkes family descends from the Rev.

    Michael Parkes, Vicar of Penkridge, Staffordshire (died ), and had close connections with the metal-working towns of Wednesbury and Wolverhampton in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.[9]

    Legacy

    Parkes is remembered in several locations:

    In September , Parkes was posthumously inducted into the American Plastics Academy's Hall of Fame.[12] He is buried in West Norwood Cemetery, London, although his memorial was removed in the s.

    References

    1. ^Anon, A Short Memoir of Alexander Parkes (–), Chemist and Inventor, Printed for Private Circulation, n.d., c. ; John Naish Goldsmith, Alexander Parkes, Xylonite and Celluloid, ; M. Kaufman, The First Century of Plastics,
    2. ^M.

      Inventor alexander parkes biography wikipedia Alexander Monro primus. Detailed notes on experimental steel production and characteristics made at John Brown and Co. Parkes was put in charge of the casting department, and his attention soon began to focus on electroplating, a recently discovered process. In the s the burgeoning electrical industry was looking for a better insulator than natural products such as gutta-percha and Parkes believed that cellulose nitrate—explored by C.

      Kaufman, op. cit., p. 17

    3. ^Obituary in Iron, pp. 73–4, 25 July
    4. ^"Parkes process (chemistry)". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Britannica Online Encyclopedia.

      Inventor alexander parkes biography Alexander Martin Lippisch. Alexander Parkes, born on the 29th December in Birmingham, was the inventor of what is now recognised as the first fully synthetic plastic. Parks began his career as an apprentice at the copper company 'Messenger and Sons' before working for George and Henry Elkington, who patented the electroplating process. Parks was married twice.

      Retrieved 20 August

    5. ^UK Patent Office (). Patents for inventions. UK Patent Office. p.&#;
    6. ^, Memoir of Sir Josiah Mason, p. ; Simon Parkes, A Tale of Two Knives, Midland Ancestor, vol. 8, no. 4, June Henry Bore, The Story of the Invention of Steel Pens, , at p.

      Inventor alexander parkes biography death He created Parkesine , the first man-made plastic. Parkes, Iron and other alloys, , antimony, copper, tin, zinc'. His discoveries allowed him to create silver plated wire, which he presented to Prince Albert in Bunce, Memoir of Sir Josiah Mason, p.

      20 says that Harrison made a steel pen for Joseph Priestley in about , "probably the first steel pen ever produced."

    7. ^The Times, 8 March
    8. ^Anon, Op. Cit., p
    9. ^William Percy Webb, Notes on the Parkes Family, typescript c. , in Society of Genealogists Library, London.
    10. ^"Blue Plaques".

      UK: The Birmingham Civic Society. Archived from the original on 29 September Retrieved 28 April

    11. ^"First plastic in the world". UK: London Borough of Hackney.

      Parkesine plastic Read Edit View history. Contact About Privacy. Henri Bracconet, the director of the Botanical Gardens in Nancy, France, was the first to prepare it in , by mixing sawdust cellulose with nitric acid. Spill sued John Wesley Hyatt, who was credited with the invention of celluloid in the United States, but lost the case.

      Archived from the original on 4 March Retrieved 28 April

    12. ^"Alexander Parkes". US: Plastics Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 29 April Retrieved 28 April

    External links