Quote Originally Posted by Mijbil View Post
Here's a question: everyone talks about "celluloid" scales going all the way back into the 19c, but I happen to know from the history of fountain pens that celluloid was not introduced into mass-manufacturing until 1927-28 (because before then pen manufacturers had to use "hard rubber," which only came in two colors, red and black, and was quite inferior in many ways - thus celluloid took the pen world by storm and was ubiquitous in a year or two.)
Coming from the pen world, I thought the same thing too. However, I just finished restoring a razor that dates to no later than 1920 that has celluloid scales. I think that the pen manufacturers were too entrenched with the use of hard rubber on their fountain pens to give celluloid much of a thought until the late twenties.