<P> The main use was in movie and photography film industries, which used only celluloid film stock prior to the adoption of acetate safety film in the 1950s . Celluloid is highly flammable, difficult and expensive to produce and no longer widely used, although its most common uses today are in table tennis balls, musical instruments, and guitar picks . </P> <P> Nitrocellulose - based plastics slightly predate celluloid . Collodion, invented in 1848 and used as a wound dressing and an emulsion for photographic plates, is dried to a celluloid - like film . </P> <P> The first celluloid as a bulk material for forming objects was made in 1855 in Birmingham, England, by Alexander Parkes, who was never able to see his invention reach full fruition, after his firm went bankrupt due to scale - up costs . Parkes patented his discovery after realising a solid residue remained after evaporation of the solvent from photographic collodion . </P> <P> Parkes patented it as a clothing waterproofer for woven fabrics in the same year . Later Parkes showcased Parkesine at the 1862 International Exhibition in London, where he was awarded a bronze medal for his efforts . The introduction of Parkesine is generally regarded as the birth of the plastics industry . </P>

Who invented the photo-sensitive celluloid roll called film used in the kinetograph