Hello! I have a samovar made in Sheffield by James Dixon and sons.There appears to be a small "ivory" piece on the tap handle.i read Abagailer's remark that Dixon and Sons used a patent ivory substitute called zylo,and was wondering when it was first developed.I cannot find any information on this substance and hope someone can refer me to a reference book,or may know something about it.The samovar was made c.1830's.Thank you!Regards,Ian.

I know it was well used in the 1960s by Joseph Rodgers & Co, and was highly inflammable.

Hi, I cannot find my English Oxford dictionary at the moment, look under xylonite, I am sure that it is celluloid.
My father won a set of six knives in the late 1930s with handles that look like Ivory and they are X or zylonite.
They are marked Firth Stainless Sheffield. I brought them to Canada with me and still use them every day.

Cheers, Cynthia. Ontario, Canada.

There was a factory on Woodfold (off Woodside Lane, Pitsmoor), that manufactured dice, knife handles, etc. It was called 'Fibreloid'. I always thought it was xylonite.

Literally speaking, 'Xylonite' was not produced until 1869. Prior to that it would have been 'Parkesine'.

The first man-made plastic was an invention of English scientist Alexander Parkes. He unveiled Parkesine at the 1862 London International Exhibition. Parkesine, an organic material that could be heated and molded but would retain its shape when cooled, was made by dissolving cellulose nitrate in just a bit of solvent. Unlike rubber (or Vulcanite), it could be coloured or transparent and could be carved into any shape. In 1866, four years after the exhibition, Parkes formed the Parkesine Company; it failed after only two years due to high production costs (even though Parkes had claimed it was cheaper than rubber).

A year after the Parkesine Company folded, an associate of Parkes named Daniel Spill tried to market a similar substance under the name Xylonite (from the Greek xylon, meaning "wood" — perhaps some of it looked like imitation wood). The Xylonite Company survived only five years and went bankrupt in 1874. However, Spill then formed the Daniel Spill Company and continued production of Xylonite, which was used to make imitation coral jewellery, among other things.

Celluloid, the first entirely synthetic plastic, was invented by American John W. Hyatt in 1869 (the name was coined by his brother). Hyatt was looking for something to replace ivory; billiards had become a very popular game, but the balls were made of valuable ivory — and thus were getting more and more expensive as more and more elephants were killed for their tusks. He began manufacturing celluloid in 1872, but his billiard balls didn't do well — they had the unfortunate tendency to explode on contact due to the volatile, flammable nature of celluloid!

The plastic did live on as a substitute for other expensive materials like amber and tortoiseshell; like Parkesine, celluloid could also be transparent. Later, it was used for film in photography and movies.


Scource (http://www.thecarrotbox.com/plastic/parkesine_xylonite.asp)

DID FORSYTHE RECEIVE THE ABOVE REPLIES AS I HAVE NOT NOTICED AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.

Hello! I have a samovar made in Sheffield by James Dixon and sons.There appears to be a small "ivory" piece on the tap handle.i read Abagailer's remark that Dixon and Sons used a patent ivory substitute called zylo,and was wondering when it was first developed.I cannot find any information on this substance and hope someone can refer me to a reference book,or may know something about it.The samovar was made c.1830's.Thank you!Regards,Ian.

Worked in cutlery for 20 years. Used alot of xylo in my time. When it was made it had to be stored in old ammo bunkers as it was so volatile. .....Great for getting fires going on guy faulkes night.

I remember my father telling me of cutlery works somewhere near the Moor that caught fire. Some of the workers were trapped against the barred windows and were killed.
It must have been early twenties, but they say it was the xylonite that caught fire in the handles shop.

I can remember the terrible smell it used to make when my mother left the handle to near the cooker and it caught fire

Hello! I have a samovar made in Sheffield by James Dixon and sons.There appears to be a small "ivory" piece on the tap handle.i read Abagailer's remark that Dixon and Sons used a patent ivory substitute called zylo,and was wondering when it was first developed.I cannot find any information on this substance and hope someone can refer me to a reference book,or may know something about it.The samovar was made c.1830's.Thank you!Regards,Ian.

My dad used to work for Harris Millar's and they used Zylo handles in the 60's he used to bring some home, they made fantastic firelighters, i remember going to work with him in the early 70's and getting to drill out the holes on a jig, i was only 10 or 11 at the time, loved it and still remember it today, on the way home we had fresh roasted chestnuts from a barrow man in pond street before catching the number 3 home to clowne

All I know is 1949 when bringing home little "arts"from Ceylon the Ebony was fake and so was the Ivory but fooled a 16yr old

My grandfather, who was an apprentice with Joseph Rodgers, often mentioned Zylo but in what context I can't remember.

xylonite brings back memories, in the fire service of going to fires in workshops, back in the fifties,being confronted by horrible, black acrid smoke,from xylo. I can taste it now when I think of it all these years later,thank goodness it is no longer used in the cutlery industry. Rholt