The Reason Why Victorian Clothes Randomly Caught Fire | Hidden Killers | Absolute History

she immediately run outside to try and get away from the smoke unfortunately about changing conditions from fairly restricted within a small area within a hall to outside where there's a lot of oxygen and some wind the skirt started to burn with flames and she was immediately engulfed in flames could this be a hidden killer manufacturers began to woo a burgeoning mass market this was the first age of mass advertising back in the 1850s and 1860s it had been thought ungentlemanly to advertise now for the first time advertising became powerfully visual photography and art we used to sell goods advertising agencies were founded and celebrities started to endorse products [Music] there's an expansion in print culture there are more newspapers there are more magazines but there are also new technologies and ways of producing images and putting them in them for example photographs appear in magazines from the 1890s onwards and this really means for advertising takes on a new visual form at this point and I think it becomes more persuasive and more powerful the power of advertising put new pressure on Victorians and would lead to increased risks and these advertisements are particularly aimed at the upper class and the middle-class woman and what they're trying to say is if you don't buy our products if you don't use our products you will be a failure as a housewife as a woman so they really played on insecurities and what they did was they got everyone to buy all kinds of dangerous substances under the guise of perfecting your home and the perfect Victorian home wouldn't be complete without a dangerous new material which they inadvertently welcomed into their homes in an amazing array of objects the man who invented it was so famous at the time a letter bearing just his name and city would get to him mr. a parks inventor of Park Essene Birmingham and it got there [Music] Birmingham dubbed the city of a thousand inventions had become a magnet for scientists and it was here that parks developed his revolutionary idea he took convo ordinary cotton wool which he combined with acids and various things and he found out he discovered how to convert the material into a moldable to which we today will call plastic so we reckon he's the father of plastics so we've sort of forgotten about this great British inventor haven't we I know I know he was a great inventor - he had something like 90 patents to his name but he wasn't a very good businessman because he company involved in about two years later but his idea was so good he was picked up in the States bike I called Hyatt and he gave it the name celluloid and from then onward Nora said oh we've forgotten parks but we all know celluloid is an early material it was the Americans who developed it into a business success and started something of a revolution it wasn't until 1885 that the world's first really successful plastic product hit the streets and it was something quite unusual it was a celluloid collar and cuff and there's a sociological reason for it of course and the Clarkes sitting at those high desk writing alleges all day long and they wouldn't be allowed to have scrap paper for calculations so they made calculations on they caught on that on their cuff and they couldn't afford a clean linen collar and cuffs every day like their bosses and they couldn't afford to launder them so by the end of the week there must be chaotic with numbers going left to right right to left and backwards but then along comes celluloid you can do all the numbers you want on your cuff during the day take it home at night put it under the tap rinse it shake it dry put it on again in the morning looking pristine just like the boss and it was an amazing sociology all success all over the world 1885 for as these affordable celluloid products found their way into items all over the house a terrible discovery was made wonderful materials not a perfect material because it's inflammable it burns chemically it's very similar gun cotton and gun cotton we know it's a nickel is explosive material so so lewis nitrate park is een salud it burns very fiercely ignoring its flammability celluloid was such a useful material that canny manufacturers saw numerous opportunities to produce those must-have items when the invention of plastic allowed brooches hair combs and mirrors to be as ornate and attractive looking as the much more expensive ivory they were eagerly swept up the middle classes wanted to look wealthy and modern and these products allow them to look just that this Victoire an evening bag for example this looks like a piece of hand carved ivory and it's not is a piece of pressed celluloid it wasn't a real ivory comb it was made of celluloid and it wasn't a real wooden bath it was painted like wood and that's because the Victorians were so delighted by innovation and by science and they love the idea of tricking themselves and also they love the idea of a cheap bargain maybe not such a great bargain I want to find out just how flammable celluloid really is this is a ping pong ball from China this is one of the few products in the world that you can still buy that's made of celluloid assisting me is Martin ship from building research establishment Martin the flame please Wow a surprisingly fierce flame definitely not something to try at home Martin estimates that celluloid is five times more flammable than plywood [Music] celluloid chemical composition meant it could not only go up in flames easily but it was also unreliable in other ways over time it degrades light and chemicals can cause it to gradually break down and in that breakdown process it releases comfor and it releases alcohols and other things that are flammable and those flammable gases in the atmosphere can then be ignited by a spark or flame without anybody igniting the celluloid itself that's what made celluloid so dangerous and there were other problems too celluloid items could also spontaneously combust as this cartoon of the time illustrates and billiard balls traditionally made of ivory were now made from the cheaper celluloid until it was discovered that they would explode on impact this is an example of one the very first Billy balls made from cellulose nitrate and the inventor of this Billy ball had a letter from a Colorado saloon keeper that he didn't mind when the balls crushed together sometimes they've got a mini explosion because of the explosive material what he did objective is the fact is every man in the room turn around and pulled out a gun but even worse was to come celluloid was so versatile it replaced materials like ivory and bone in clothing items like corsets and lace brooches bracelets and all sorts of accessories were either made of or featured celluloid without concern for the accumulative effect this is a hair comb used in the 1890s and the fashion the style was to have hair combs that pushed in the back not just one but several often and when you consider that's a highly flammable material and the reports of people passing to coast to gas lamps or leaning too close to the fire and poof they burst into flames there were terrible tales of misadventure like the woman who failed to notice a cigar roll under her celluloid enhanced dress until it was too late she immediately ran outside to try and get away from the smoke unfortunately about changing conditions from fairly restricted within a small area within a hall to outside where there's a lot of oxygen and some wind the skirt started to burn with flames and she was immediately engulfed in flames in her pursuit of cut-price fashion the Victorian woman had been transformed into a walking fire hazard although in 1922 the wasn't act enforcing better safety and premises were war celluloid film was stored there was never any legislation to stop the use of celluloid in fashionable items and in clothing it was only over the course of the 20th century as more improved less flammable plastics were invented that the use of celluloid declined but while its introduction had been a dangerous one it developed into a far safer product that is still with us one that a British inventor had been responsible for I think you can look around today and virtually everything which you look at or touch or you'll control everything you do involves plastics it controls our lives today which you may think is a good thing or a bad thing but it does we come up with comic book avoid that and he set the wheels in motion for that it laid the foundations for a massive industry which now controls and affects everybody's lives throughout the world from the food they ate to the clothes they wore and the gadgets and products championed by the new exciting advertising campaigns Victorian homes were brimming with killers they lay dormant until scientific progress consumer concern or a brave new pioneer raised their voice above the clamor and forced to change for the better but the Victorian ideal of seifer's houses was never really fulfilled [Music] you

Channel: Absolute History

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Keywords: timeline, absolute history, documentary history, history documentary, full length documentaries, hidden killers of the victorian home, hidden killers of the tudor home, hidden killers of the georgian home, suzannah lipscomb, suzannah lipscomb documentary, suzannah lipscomb hidden killers, victorian dangers in the home, hidden dangers of the victorian home, victorian history, victorian history of london, victorian documentaries

Id: 2LkRXYBI4SQ

Length: 10min 59sec (659 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 19 2019