Cellophane

Cellophane emerged because Jacques Brandenberger wanted a tablecloth that wouldn't absorb wine. In 1900, the Swiss chemist watched a wine spill ruin a restaurant's cloth and decided to create a fabric that would repel liquids rather than absorb them. Working at Blanchisserie et Teinturerie de Thaon, a French textile company, he began experimenting with ways to apply liquid viscose rayon to cloth.

The adjacent possible aligned through the viscose process developed in the 1890s. Viscose was liquid cellulose—wood pulp dissolved in caustic soda and carbon disulfide—that could be extruded into rayon fibers. Brandenberger tried coating cloth with viscose to make it waterproof. The coating proved too stiff for flexible fabric. But he noticed something else: a thin transparent film could be peeled off the top of the treated cloth.

Brandenberger recognized this accidental byproduct had value independent of his original goal. He abandoned the waterproof tablecloth and focused on perfecting the transparent film. In 1908, he filed a patent for regenerated cellulose films using a water bath containing ammonium sulfate to coagulate the viscose and an acidic bath to regenerate the cellulose.

By 1912, Brandenberger had invented one of the first machines for large-scale cellophane production and built an industrial enterprise in Paris to manufacture the material. He coined the name 'cellophane' by combining 'cellulose' with 'diaphane,' the French word for translucent. Early applications included wrapping products and covering gas mask eyepieces during World War I.

Brandenberger sold US rights to DuPont in 1923. DuPont chemist William Hale Charch later developed moisture-proof cellophane coating, dramatically expanding food packaging applications. In 1937, the Franklin Institute awarded Brandenberger the Elliott Cresson Medal for his invention.

Cellophane revolutionized packaging as the first clear plastic film. It made products visible while protecting them—a fundamental shift in retail merchandising. The material's transparency, while seemingly simple, transformed how consumers interacted with packaged goods. What began as a failed waterproofing experiment became the foundation of modern transparent packaging and enabled cellophane adhesive tape in 1930.