What early material looked like transparent plastic ??

[MathWizard]

I just popped a movie on in the background, Wagon's East, it's a Western comedy set in the 1860's, so maybe this is a movie mistake.

But Robert Picardo (the StarTrek:Voyager Doctor), is wearing what I call a visor-hat, IDK the real name. It has a greenish semi-transparent material, that now-a-days would be plastic. But I'm sure I've seen there old-style hats in other TV/movies. Sometimes you see bookies, and accountants wearing them in old gangster movies.

So if they really had these see through visors in the 1860's, what the green material would be ? Besides glass, which seems a bit risky, maybe it could be some plant material, maybe died green. Or maybe even treated animal skin. I'm guessing it's not something like the mineral Mica.

I can't take a screen shot of the hat as the movie is on amazon. But here's a modern one.

[edavid]

Wikipedia says celluloid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_eyeshade

[jpanhalt]

Probably celluloid, which dates to the mid 19th century.  It is highly flammable and serious fires were attributed to its use for motion picture films much later:

Source: https://www.britannica.com/technology/celluloid

Some historians trace the invention of celluloid to English chemist Alexander Parkes, who in 1856 was granted the first of several patents on a plastic material that he called Parkesine.

And: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_eyeshade

Edit: Sorry, very slow typist.

[MathWizard]

Ok it's green for making old artificial lighting less harsh. And yeah thinking of early chemistry, cellulose like from treating cotton for gunpowder and whatever, all that early organic chemistry explains it.

So that must have seemed pretty futuristic. Maybe so did stained glass, but yeah something flexible, and then mass produced too.

I love Back to the Future part 3 (sci-fi western), but I don't buy that Doc Brown couldn't make something like gas for the Delorean, or get the alcohol burning to working.

[helius]

I love Back to the Future part 3 (sci-fi western), but I don't buy that Doc Brown couldn't make something like gas for the Delorean, or get the alcohol burning to working.

To avoid destroying a Daimler type engine, you don't need "something like gas". You need a fuel with specific ignition characteristics within a narrow range. Kerosene, for instance, is definitely like gasoline (a fractional distillate of petroleum), but filling your tank with it will not make you a happy camper. To avoid longer-term damage to valves and seals, the requirements are even more strict.