Craft Masonry in Albany County, New York - Onondaga and Oswego ...

experimenting with little or no practical results, until the formation of the present Company, since which time, by the use of
perfected processes and machinery, the invention of J.W. Hyatt, the Company has succeeded in producing billiard balls that
are more perfect than ivory balls, while at the same time they are far less expensive.
The management of the Company is in the hands of the following named officers: Peter Kinnear, President and Treasurer;
J.W. Hyatt, Vice-President; Lewis Dietz, Secretary; and B.P. Wayne, Superintendent; all gentlemen closely identified with the
industrial advancement of this city. Mr. Kinnear's identification with this enterprise dates from a time when failure and disaster
had stripped it of the confidence of most of the capitalists of Albany. He had faith in the scheme, and unbounded faith in Mr.
Hyatt, through the utilization of whose inventions he was certain success would be won for it. At considerable personal trouble
and no small temporary sacrifice, he invested in the enterprise, taking risks which made some of his friends tremble for the
results; and he induced others of Albany's progressive men to take stock in the Company. The result has more than justified
his most sanguine hopes. The enterprise is one of Albany's notable successes."
The Bonsilate Company, at the corner of Church and Pruyn streets, was organized in 1878. "The factory is four stories, brick, where
20 workmen are employed. This company produces bonsilate in bulk and in manufactured goods . . . Bonsilate is the discovery of
John W. Hyatt, the inventor also of celluloid. it has been improved by Charles S. Lockwood. it is already used in making many
articles of utility and ornament, for which its qualities of hardness, elasticity, susceptibility of taking any color and a high polish,
render it very valuable. It is also a non-conductor of electricity, and incombustible. It is valuable as a substitute for ivory, jet, coral,
celluloid and all like substances." It was widely known as the Bonsilate Button Company. The president of Bonsilate was Albany
Saw and Albany Embossing's Robert Pruyn, the president was Peter's son David Kinnear, and Peter Kinnear was a director.
John Hyatt, long decamped to Newark, was listed as a board member and "Expert." The company only lasted until January 1888,
when the New York Times noted its closure:
"The Albany Bonsilate Company, one of the largest concerns of the kind in the country, to-day concluded to wind up its affairs
and close the business. Among the stockholders is John W. Hyatt of Newark, N.J., the inventor of bonsilate and celluloid. The
company has been doing business since 1881, having been organized in Newark with a capital stock of $100,000. It was
believed that there was a great future for the company, but it has steadily lost money."
Through 1899, at least, Albany Billiard Ball Company remained on Grand Street, at the corner of Plain, a site now covered by the
South Mall Arterial. It's the close of the century and we're still nowhere near Delaware Avenue. But at some point there was a move
to Delaware Ave., for by 1928 (there's a big gap in available directories online), ABB was finally at our "historic" site at 483 Delaware
Avenue, with Ronald Kinnear as President and Treasurer, and Kenneth C. Ogden as vice president and secretary.
And there it sat, quietly making billiard balls miles and miles from the original site of the manufacture of celluloid, decaying, waiting
for redevelopment and the placement of a marker that commemorates an important event in Albany's industrial history in exactly the
wrong place. You could make an argument for putting the marker in front of the vacant lot at 795 Broadway, or as close to the
corner of long-gone Plain Street as you can get, but celluloid was not invented way out on Delaware Avenue.
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