Daniel Spill (11 February 1832 – 1887) was born in

Winterbourne, Gloucestershire Winterbourne is a large village in South Gloucestershire, England, situated just beyond the north fringe of Bristol.OS Explorer Map, Bristol and Bath, Keynsham & Marshfield. Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey B4 edition (2013). The vil ...

, 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 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 Messenge ...

' invention

Parkesine Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common contemporary ...

, the first man-made plastic.

Career

Although he trained as a doctor he joined the business of his brother George. The firm of George Spill & Co. manufactured waterproof textiles in Stepney Green, East London by spreading rubber onto cloth. The material was much in demand for capes and groundsheets for soldiers in the wet conditions of the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

. Spill became aware of Parkes' claim for the waterproof qualities of

probably at the 1862 exhibition. Negotiations led to an agreement not only to use it for waterproofing but also to develop

in the works of George Spill at

Hackney Wick Hackney Wick is a neighbourhood in east London, England. The area forms the south-eastern part of the district of Hackney, and also of the wider London Borough of Hackney. Adjacent areas of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets are sometimes a ...

. A provisional patent was granted in 1863 to the Spill brothers and Thomas James Briggs concerning "improvements in the manufacture of driving straps or bands and of flexible tubes or hose" In 1866, the Parkesine Company was established with Daniel Spill as works manager and Parkes as managing director. The Company did not prosper and was wound up in 1868, Spill taking over most of the stock. He formed the Xylonite Company in 1869 to carry on the business but that did not fare much better and was wound up in 1874. Undaunted by these failures, Spill established Daniel Spill & Co. in Homerton, continuing to make Xylonite and Ivoride. This enterprise succeeded in that others entered into an agreement with Spill in 1877 to form the British Xylonite Company in purpose-built premises at

Brantham Brantham is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. It is located close to the River Stour and the border with Essex, around north of Manningtree, and around southwest of Ipswich. History The name Brantham i ...

. This company did go on and prosper, going on to employ 1,160 people by 1902 and changed its name to

BX Plastics BX Plastics was a plastics engineering and production company. The company was one of three subsidiaries of the British Xylonite Company established by 1938. BX Plastics made xylonite (also known as celluloid or ivoride) and Lactoid (also known ...

. Spill's later years were largely occupied in a long legal battle in America with

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 ...

and the Celluloid Manufacturing Company for infringement of his patents. The lawsuit which was filed in 1875, was first found in his favour in 1880 even after Parkes testified on behalf of Hyatt, but reversed in 1884. Spill returned to England and in 1887 died of diabetes at the age of 55.

Personal life

He married at the age of 18; his bride was 15. In 1881 Spill was listed as a retired manufacturer in the 1881 census of Leyton High Street, living with his wife and daughter and his nephew George, an India Rubber Manufacturer. (Requires registration)

References

External links

Short biography and picture

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spill, Daniel 1832 births 1887 deaths People from Winterbourne, Gloucestershire