celluloid?

[RndyPotter@aol.com]

Philip Jamison wrote:
>I read Newton's comment on the flammability of celluloid in which he likens
a
set of keytops to an explosive charge. I must disagree here, as I usually
remove these old tops with an alcohol lamp. Often, a corner will catch fire,
but a quick wave of the key puts it out. I've seen many ivorine keys with
cigarette burns, but never heard of one immolating a pianist. Reminds me of
old movie film made of cellulose nitrate (now it's cellulose acetate). The
former had a nasty rep for fire (see "Cinema Paradiso"). Wonder what ivorine
is made of? Anyway, take an old celluloid key top outside and light it to see
for yourself. APSCO stopped selling ivorine (for insurance reasons, I
suppose), yet they still sell french polish and laquers. In fact, I couldn't
>find any US supplier, and got some from England. Strange world.

Question:
Unless I am mistaken, are you not using two different words, which refer to
two different items, as if they were one.
Celluloid is an early form of an oil-derivative product which, later, and
after much research and development, evolved into what we now call plastic.
One early use of celluoid was for Disney's cartoon artists to draw Micky
Mouse and friends, and for accordion makers to fashion flashy cases and keys.
Another, as we know, was early keytops.
Ivorine, on the other hand, is not celluloid. It is a later development of
the same petroleum, but cracked in a different way and processed in a more
modern fashion, and with a more stable result.
Most of what we have been able to get from the suppliers for the past 20 to
30 years, and maybe longer, has been ivorine, which, I think, is one of the
Frigidaire-type words. The original product, I believe, was Ivorine, but it
ended up becoming a (at least to us) household word. Early Ivorine was, I
believe, plastice with a "grain" look; plastic made to sort of look like
ivory. Thus the name.
But, unless someone can correct me, celluloid and ivorine are different
products. The celluloid I have worked with flames and burns. But I have not
ever seen any Ivorine, ivorine, or plastic-keytops-by-any-other-name, flame
up and burn like celluloid.
Newton Hunt's article was about celluloid, was it not?
Ivorine does, as you suggest, melt.
Celluloid does, as Newton cautions, burn easily.
Perhaps there is a chemist-type who reads this page, who knows more than we
do about the differences, and would bless us with some definitive
explanation.

Randy Potter, R.P.T.