GALALITH was one of the first synthetic materials, alongside BAKELITE and CELLULOID.
It was invented in 1889 by A. Spitteler and W Kirsche from milk casein. At the beginning of the 20th century, a French chemist, Monsieur Trilat, discovered the means to insolubilize casein by immersion in formaldehyde.
Known under the trade name of GALALITH (or ERINOID in the UK), this material revolutionized the button industry with its capacity to create structural effects and imitate all sorts of material - horn, tortoiseshell, ivory, wood, etc.
It was also used in the thirties for jewellery, pens, umbrella handles, etc. World production at that time reached 10.000 tons.
One of its great qualities is its porosity, making it ideal for dying, by immersing white GALALITH in coloured baths.
GALALITH cannot be moulded, and is manufactured in the form of sheets of different thickness, sticks and tubes, and is therefore worked by hand. The emergence of plastics sealed the fate of GALALITH, which was too expensive.
Production has now virtually ceased.
