In 1900, Swiss textile engineer Jacques E. Brandenberger first came up with the idea for a waterproof tablecloth while seated at a restaurant. He hoped to invent a clear, flexible film that could be applied to the cloth. He experimented with multiple materials, including liquid viscose. The viscose made the cloth too stiff, but it peeled off in a transparent film! Thus cellophane was born and in 1908 a machine was created to make sheets of the film.