Alexander Parkes

Biography[edit]
. The son of a brass lock manufacturer, 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. 8905) in 1841 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 1843. The patent
involved electroplating an object previously dipped in a solution of phosphorus
contained in bisulfide of carbon, and then in nitrate of silver. A spiders web,
silver-plated according to this method, was presented to Prince Albertwhen he
visited the Elkington works in 1844.

In 1846 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 12325 of 1848, taken out
jointly with his brother Henry Parkes).[3]

In 1850 he developed and patented the Parkes process for economically

desilvering lead, also patenting refinements to the process in 1851 and 1852.
[4]

In 1856, he patented Parkesine - the first thermoplastic - a celluloid based

on nitrocellulose treated with a variety of solvents.[5] This material, exhibited at
the 1862 London International Exhibition, anticipated many of the modern
aesthetic and utility uses of plastics.
In 1866 he set up The Parkesine Company at Hackney Wick, London, for
bulk