Cellophane SA: Swiss chemist's stain-proof tablecloth film changed packaging forever

In 1908, Swiss chemist Jacques Brandenberger was inspired by a wine spill on a restaurant tablecloth to create a waterproof, stain-proof material. He sprayed liquid viscose — a wood pulp derivative — onto fabric, but the coating was too stiff and the fabric became rigid. When it dried, the transparent film peeled off as a flexible, unbroken sheet. The tablecloth was a failure, but the film was something new.

Brandenberger abandoned his original goal and spent ten years perfecting the film, adding glycerin to make it flexible. By 1912 he had built a machine to produce it continuously. He named it Cellophane, from cellulose and 'diaphane' (French for transparent). In 1913, a larger company bought the rights and formed La Cellophane SA.

In the United States, Whitman's began using cellophane for its Whitman's Sampler chocolates as early as 1912, remaining the largest importer until 1924, when DuPont built the first US cellophane plant. DuPont chemist William Hale Charch spent three years developing a nitrocellulose lacquer that made cellophane moisture-proof, introduced in 1927. Sales tripled between 1928 and 1930.

By 1938, cellophane accounted for 10% of DuPont's sales and 25% of its profits. It became the defining packaging material of the mid-20th century, used for food, cigarettes, and gift baskets. From the 1960s onward, cheaper petrochemical films like polypropylene replaced it, but cellophane remains in use for specialty applications, valued for its biodegradability.

Abandoned the tablecloth and spent ten years perfecting the film, adding glycerin for flexibility and building a machine to produce it continuously, naming it Cellophane.

Brandenberger was trying to make a waterproof tablecloth and failed — the coating was too stiff and peeled off, but the transparent film that resulted was a new material nobody had seen before.

Brandenberger spent ten years perfecting something that was not his original goal — he had to abandon his tablecloth idea entirely and follow the material to a completely different application.

DuPont's moisture-proof coating in 1927 was the breakthrough that turned cellophane from a curiosity into a commercial success — sales tripled in two years.

A failed experiment is not a dead end — it is a material looking for its application. Brandenberger's tablecloth failed, but the film that replaced it changed how the world packaged food.