The Albany Billiard Ball Company was an American manufacturer of billiard s based in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...

. The company was founded in 1868, manufacturing for over 100 years, before going out of business in 1986.

History

In the 1860s,

John Wesley Hyatt John Wesley Hyatt (November 28, 1837 – May 10, 1920) was an American inventor. He is mainly known for simplifying the production of celluloid. Hyatt, a Perkin Medal recipient, is included in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He had nearly 2 ...

acquired British chemist

Alexander Parkes Alexander Parkes (29 December 1813 29 June 1890) was a metallurgist and inventor from Birmingham, England. He created Parkesine, the first man-made plastic. Biography The son of a manufacturer of brass locks, Parkes was apprenticed to Messenger ...

's 1855 patent for Parkesine, an early

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...

, made of

nitrocellulose Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...

, oil and various solvents. Parkes's own attempt to build a business around the new material, the first industrial

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

, had failed by 1868. Hyatt began experimenting with cellulose nitrate with the intention of manufacturing

billiard ball A billiard ball is a small, hard ball used in cue sports, such as carom billiards, pool, and snooker. The number, type, diameter, color, and pattern of the balls differ depending upon the specific game being played. Various particular ball p ...

s, which until that time were principally made from

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...

(cheaper balls were made of clay or wood). Using

cloth Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

, ivory dust, and

shellac Shellac () is a resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes and dissolved in alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and ...

, Hyatt devised a method of covering billiard balls with the addition of

collodion Collodion is a flammable, syrupy solution of nitrocellulose in ether and alcohol. There are two basic types: flexible and non-flexible. The flexible type is often used as a surgical dressing or to hold dressings in place. When painted on the skin, ...

in 1868. To manufacture the product, Hyatt formed the ''Albany Billiard Ball Company'', in

's South End in 1868, with assistance from Peter Kinnear and other investors. Hyatt received a patent on nitrocellulose innovation on April 6, 1869. The company initially operated out a machine shop owned by Kinnear, who ultimately became the majority owner and steered the company to market and financial success. In 1870, John and his brother Isaiah patented a process of making a "horn-like material" with the inclusion of nitrocellulose and camphor,US patent #105,338 issued July 12, 1870
/ref> and founded a second business, ''Albany Dental Plate Co.'' (later the Celluloid Manufacturing Co.), to manufacture more than sporting goods. Alexander Parkes had used

camphor Camphor () is a waxy, colorless solid with a strong aroma. It is classified as a terpenoid and a cyclic ketone. It is found in the wood of the camphor laurel ('' Cinnamomum camphora''), a large evergreen tree found in East Asia; and in the k ...

among his Parkesine solvents, and another Englishman who had worked with Parkes,

Daniel Spill Daniel Spill (11 February 1832 – 1887) was born in Winterbourne, Gloucestershire, England. He became a rubber and an early thermoplastics manufacturer. For over 20 years Spill had pursued the goal of making a successful business from Alexander Par ...

, listed camphor as an ingredient in his own variant of nitrocellulose polymer, Xylonite, but it was the Hyatt brothers who recognized the value of camphor's use as a plasticizer for nitrocellulose. Isaiah Hyatt dubbed their material, using this method, Celluloid in 1872. It was put to use by the Albany Billiard Ball Company and its sister company, Albany Dental Plate Co. (later the Celluloid Manufacturing Co.) The name "celluloid" has long since become a

genericized trademark A generic trademark, also known as a genericized trademark or proprietary eponym, is a trademark or brand name that, because of its popularity or significance, has become the generic term for, or synonymous with, a general class of products or ...

. Albany's celluloid-based

composite material A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...

pool balls dominated the US market until the 1960s, when the increased availability of cheap, imported balls almost ruined the company. Investor David M. Carey acquired the company and renamed it the ''Albany–Hyatt Billiard Ball Company'' in September 1977, and made the company competitive again with lowered production costs and a new marketing strategy. By this time, it was the last remaining US-based major billiard ball manufacturer. By the early 1980s, Albany was using the newer, superior

phenolic resin Phenol formaldehyde resins (PF) or phenolic resins (also infrequently called phenoplasts) are synthetic polymers obtained by the reaction of phenol or substituted phenol with formaldehyde. Used as the basis for Bakelite, PFs were the first commerc ...

, like their

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

-based competitor

Saluc Saluc S.A. is a Belgian speciality manufacturing company. Founded in 1923, they are best known for their Aramith brand billiard balls. The company also manufactures other sorts of balls and bearings with high engineering tolerances for a wide vari ...

Four-page advertising pamphlet. (today the dominant company in the market). Despite this modernization, Albany–Hyatt went out of business in 1986.

References

{{reflist 1986 disestablishments in New York (state) American companies established in 1868 Companies based in Albany, New York American companies disestablished in 1986 Cue sports equipment manufacturers Defunct manufacturing companies based in New York (state) Plastics companies of the United States