The polyfloss factory

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1.1 Genealogy

The histories of both cotton candy and plastic start back in the 19th century. The cotton candy technology was invented in 1897 by the dentist William J. Morrison and confectioner John C. Wharton in Nashville, Tennessee. Their device used heat and centrifugal force to melt sugar and spin it into thin, silky threads.

They unveiled their creation at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, calling it Fairy Floss. The machine caused a sensation: more than 68,000 servings were sold during the exposition. This moment not only marked the birth of cotton candy—it also symbolized a new alliance between technology and delight, where engineering met wonder.

The St. Louis World’s Fair is the moment when the idea of the amusement park emerged. Among its most spectacular features was The Pike—a mile-long avenue of attractions, rides, and mechanical marvels that blended engineering with entertainment. It showcased the world’s first large-scale amusements: electric railways, moving panoramas, and fantastical architecture illuminated by thousands of lights. The Pike’s fusion of spectacle and technology inspired a new model for leisure culture—and several of the attractions where then transferred to the newly built Coney Island, central to New-York’s development model as highlighted by Rem Koolhaas in New York Delire.

A few years later, Belgian-American chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland created Bakelite, the first fully synthetic plastic, presented in 1907. By combining phenol and formaldehyde under heat and pressure in his lab in Yonkers, New-York, he produced a hard, moldable material that was heat-resistant and electrically insulating—a perfect fit for the modern age of telephones, radios, and electricity. Baekeland was looking for a way to replace natural gum for electric insulation. But Bakelite went much further than that. It marked the beginning of the plastic era: a material no longer derived from nature, but invented outright. It embodied the optimism of early industrial chemistry—when innovation promised endless new forms, colors, and possibilities.

What began as a miracle of modern chemistry soon became one of the planet’s greatest burdens. Since Baekeland’s first experiment in 1907, global plastic production has grown from just a few tons to over 400 million tons per year—and it continues to rise. Most of it is made from fossil fuels, and less than 10% is ever recycled. From deep oceans to mountain snow, plastic now circulates through every ecosystem on Earth. The same material that once symbolized human ingenuity has become a symbol of ecological overshoot—an urgent reminder that invention alone is not progress.