Plastics Industry
The city of Leominster has played a more significant role in the establishment and progress of plastics than any other city in the United States. The plastics industry arose from the comb industry, which appeared in Leominster in the 1770s and has flourished there ever since. Early combs were made of animal shell, horn, and hooves; by the mid-19th century, these supplies were dwindling rapidly. Everything changed when in 1868 John Wesley Hyatt invented a material made from cellulose nitrate, to which he gave the name "celluloid". Celluloid was hard, durable, and easy to shape and mold when heated to a certain temperature. Leominster's facilities for horn fabrication rapidly become the center for plastic fabrication in the United States. Leominster used celluloid not only for combs but also for toys, cutlery handles, optical frames, buttons, and novelties of all shapes and sizes. Most celluloid manufacturing was later changed to cellulose acetate which did not burn as quickly. The peak of the plastics industry in Leominster was between 1900 and 1920. The plastics industry was Leominster's largest employer.
Unfortunately, in the late 1920s women's styles were changing rapidly; hair was worn shorter with no need for elaborate combs. With the advent of the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and did not end until the end of World War II, Leominster's plastics industry went into a decline.
Read more about this topic: Leominster, Massachusetts
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