Cellophane

“ Eighty percent of cellophane made by du Pont is sold for packaging in the food industry. Of this quantity, 80% is sold for packaging baked goods, meat, candy, crackers and biscuits, frozen foods, fresh vegetables and produce, potato chips, and 'snacks,' such as peanut butter sandwiches, popcorn, etc. A small amount is sold for wrapping of textiles and paper products, etc. Largest nonfood use of cellophane is the overwrapping of cigarette packages. ”

“ The majority hold in effect that, because cellophane meets competition for many end uses, those buyers for other uses who need or want only cellophane are not entitled to the benefits of competition within the cellophane industry. ”

“ Now, you can put Chinese chestnuts raw in cellophane bags and seal them with a hot iron. These bags are not sealed. It is a non-sealable cellophane. I didn't get hold of the type of cellophane that you can seal. They are unsealed. They have been in this package about a week, and the nuts are in good shape. On cold storage I have held those nuts for 40 days. Last year was the first time that I tried them in sealed cellophane, but sealed in cellophane bags in cold storage last year they remained perfectly good for 40 days. ”

“ If the conduct of buyers indicated that glassine, waxed and sulphite papers and aluminum foil were actually 'the selfsame products' as cellophane, the qualitative differences demonstrated by the comparison of physical properties in Finding 59 would not be conclusive. But the record provides convincing proof that businessmen did not so regard these products. During the period covered by the complaint (1923-1947) cellophane enjoyed phenomenal growth. Du Pont's 1924 production was 361,249 pounds, which sold for.$1,306,662. ”

“ If cellophane is the 'market' that du Pont is found to dominate, it may be assumed it does have monopoly power over that 'market.' [17] Monopoly power is the power to control prices or exclude competition. [18] It seems apparent that du Pont's power to set the price of cellophane has been limited only by the competition afforded by other flexible packaging materials. Moreover, it may be practically impossible for anyone to commence manufacturing cellophane without full access to du Pont's technique. However, du Pont has no power to prevent competition from other wrapping materials. ”

“ Our next step is to determine whether du Pont has monopoly power over cellophane: that is, power over its price in relation to or competition with other commodities. The charge was monopolization of cellophane. The defense, that cellophane was merely a part of the relevant market for flexible packaging materials.
IV. The Relevant Market.-When a product is controlled by one interest, without substitutes available in the market, there is monopoly power. Because most products have possible substitutes, we cannot, as we said in Times-Picayune Pub. ”

“ These customers are unwilling to use more cellophane because of its relatively high price, would use more if the price were reduced, and have increased their use as the price of cellophane has been reduced. ”

“ The Government apparently concedes as much, for it states that 'lack of power to inhibit entry into this so-called market (i.e., flexible packaging materials) , comprising widely disparate products, is no indicium of absence of power to exclude competition in the manufacture and sale of cellophane.' The record shows the multiplicity of competitors and the financial strength of some with individual assets running to the hundreds of millions. ”

“ In 1917 Brandenberger assigned his patents to La Cellophane Societe Anonyme and joined that organization. Thereafter developments in the production of cellophane somewhat paralleled those taking place in artificial textiles. Chemical science furnished the knowledge for perfecting the new products. The success of the artificial products has been enormous. Du Pont was an American leader in the field of synthetics and learned of cellophane's successes through an associate, Comptoir des Textiles Artificiel. ”

“ The ultimate consideration is such a determination is whether the defendants control the price and competition in the market for such part of trade or commerce as they are charged with monopolizing. Every manufacturer is the sole producer of the particular commodity it makes but its control in the above sense of the relevant market depends upon the availability of alternative commodities for buyers: i.e., whether there is a cross-elasticity of demand between cellophane and the other wrappings. ”

“ The 'market' which one must study to determine when a producer has monopoly power will vary with the part of commerce under consideration. The tests are constant. That market is composed of products that have reasonable interchangeability for the purposes for which they are produced-price, use and qualities considered. While the application of the tests remains uncertain, it seems to us that du Pont should not be found to monopolize cellophane when that product has the competition and interchangeability with other wrappings that this record shows. ”

“ As duPont's manufacturing costs declined, 1924 to 1935, duPont reduced prices for cellophane. When costs of raw materials increased subsequent to 1935, it postponed reductions until 1938 and 1939. Subsequent increases in cost of raw material and labor brought about price increases after 1947.'
References:
(1) Normally printed before waxing.
(2) The permeability to gases can vary greatly depending upon the gas and the humidity conditions. The levels indicated in this chart apply particularly to flavor type volatiles as found in many food products. ”

“ Pecto-Cellulose.—A generic term applied to many important fibrous materials, such as flax, straw, esparto, bamboo, phormium, ramie, &c., which on alkaline treatment yield cellulose for paper-making, and a non-fibrous soluble residue of complex composition. These soluble derivatives are known as pectin (C32H48O32) , pectic acid (C32H44O30) , and metapectic acid (C32H28O36) . Although the soluble constituents of the pecto-celluloses amount to 50 per cent. by weight in most cases, no process for the recovery of the product in a commercial form has yet been devised. ”

“ It is easily saponified by boiling with a solution of potassium hydrate, the cellulose being regenerated. No derivative containing more than three acetyl groups has been obtained; but a mixture of the mono-and di-acetyl cellulose is formed in treating cellulose with only twice its weight of acetic anhydride, the formation of these bodies being unattended by their solution.
Whenever cellulose, in any form, is brought into contact with strong nitric acid at a low temperature, a nitro product, or a nitrate, is formed. ”

“ The calcium compound tends to harden and weaken the thread. The ammonia compound requires great care and is costly. The magnesium compound works rapidly and gives the strongest thread. Investigations have established the following point. In practice it is not necessary to combine the saponification of cellulose ester with complete reduction of the nitric acid split off. The latter requires eight molecules of hydrogen sulphide per one molecule tetranitrocellulose, but with precautions four molecules suffice. ”

“ Viewed as a chemical substance, cellulose is white, translucent, and somewhat heavier than water. It is tasteless, inodorous, absolutely innutritious, and is insoluble in water, alcohol, and oils. Dilute acids and alkalies, even when hot, scarcely affect it. By prolonged boiling in dilute acids, however, cellulose undergoes a gradual change, being converted into hydro-cellulose. It is also affected by boiling water alone, especially under high pressure, if boiled for a lengthened period. ”

“ It is quite true that cellulose can be obtained from wood and other vegetable substances by treatment with nitric acid alone, or with a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, but it will be readily seen that the employment of such large quantities of these acids as would be required to effect the object in view on a practical scale, would be fraught with incalculable difficulties, amongst which may be mentioned the insuperable difficulty of obtaining vessels that would resist the powerful corrosive action of the acids. ”

“ Plant tissues, however, seldom, if ever, consist of pure cellulose, but contain besides, other products of growth either chemically combined with the cellulose or mechanically bound up with the tissue, which are, according to the nature of their union, removable either by means of fundamental chemical resolution or by the application of simple solvents. A general method for the isolation of cellulose consists in exposing the moist tissue to the action of chlorine gas or of bromine water in the cold, and subsequently boiling in dilute ammonia ”

“ Cellulose burns with a luminous flame to carbon dioxide and water; dry distillation gives a complicated mixture of gaseous and liquid products and a residue of charcoal or pseudo-carbon. Chromic acid in sulphuric acid solutions effects a complete oxidation, i.e. combustion to water and carbonic acid.
Ligno-celluloses.—These compounds have many of the characteristics of the cellulose esters; they are in effect ethereal compounds of cellulose and the quinonoid lignone complex, and the combination resists hydrolysis by weak alkalis or acids. ”

“ But we shall find that the point again arises in attempting to define the reacting unit, which is another term for the molecule. In the majority of cases we [Pg 79] rely for this upon physical measurements; and in fact the purely chemical determination of such quantities is inferential. Attempts have been made to determine the molecular weights of the cellulose esters in solution, by observations of depression of solidifying and boiling-points. But the numbers have little value. The only other well-defined compound is the sulphocarbonate. ”

“ Pure cellulose is readily attacked by, and soon becomes dissolved in, a solution of oxide of copper in ammonia (cuprammonium) , and may again be precipitated in colourless flakes by the addition of an excess of hydrochloric acid, and afterwards filtering and washing the precipitate. Concentrated boiling hydrochloric acid converts cellulose into a fine powder, without, however, altering its composition, while strong nitric acid forms nitro-substitution products of various degrees, according to the strength of the acid employed. ”

“ By treating the fibrous cellulose nitrates with liquid solvents of the high nitrate diluted with non-solvent liquids, and more especially water. The optimum effect is a specific disintegration or breaking down of their fibrous structure quite distinct from the gelatinisation which precedes solution in the undiluted solvent, and occurring within narrow limits of variation in the proportion of the diluting and non-solvent liquid—for industrial work the most convenient solution to employ is acetone diluted with about 10 p.ct. ”

“ ZINC CHLORIDE.—To prepare a homogeneous solution of cellulose by means of the neutral chloride, a prolonged digestion at or about 100° with the concentrated reagent is required. The dissolution of the cellulose is not a simple phenomenon, but is attended with hydrolysis and a certain degree of condensation. The latter result is evidenced by the formation of furfural, the former by the presence of soluble carbohydrates in the solution obtained by diluting the original solution and filtering from the reprecipitated cellulose. ”

“ Oxidation.—Cellulose is only oxidised to any appreciable extent by acid and alkali if treated under severe conditions. It is remarkable that the processes necessary for isolating paper pulp from plants when digested with these chemical reagents do not act upon or destroy the fibre, and this capacity for resisting oxidation has rendered cellulose extremely valuable to many of the most important industries. ”

“ The air, which rests upon the charge, and which offers an enormous resistance to motion at such inconceivably high velocities, serves as a sufficient tamping.
Gun-cotton may be taken as an example of a chemical compound. The woody or fibrous part of plants is called “cellulose.” Its chemical formula is C6H10O5, that is, the molecule of cellulose consists of six atoms of carbon in combination with ten atoms of hydrogen and five atoms of oxygen. If this substance be dipped into concentrated nitric acid, some of the hydrogen is displaced and peroxide of nitrogen is substituted for it. ”

“ The residual OH groups of the cellulose are esterified and substitution by an NO2 group takes place in the aromatic residue, giving a mixed nitric nitrobenzoic ester. The analysis of the products points to the entrance of 1 NO2 group in the benzoyl residue in either case; in the cellulose residue 1 OH readily reacts. Higher degrees of nitration are attained by the process of solution in concentrated nitric acid and precipitation by pouring into sulphuric acid. In describing these mixed esters we shall find it necessary to adopt the C12 unit formula. ”

“ Other compounds exist in more intimate association with the cellulose nitrates causing instability which cannot be removed by exhaustive washing with either hot or cold water, by digestion in cold dilute alkaline solutions such as sodium carbonate, or by extracting with ether, alcohol, benzene, &c. ”