For over 20 years Spill had pursued the goal of making a successful business from Alexander Parkes' invention Parkesine, the first man-made plastic.
The firm of George Spill & Co. manufactured waterproof textiles in Stepney Green, East London [1] by spreading rubber onto cloth.
[2] Negotiations led to an agreement not only to use it for waterproofing but also to develop Parkesine in the works of George Spill at Hackney Wick.
[5] This enterprise succeeded in that others entered into an agreement with Spill in 1877 to form the British Xylonite Company in purpose-built premises at Brantham.
[6] Spill's later years were largely occupied in a long legal battle in America with John Wesley Hyatt and the Celluloid Manufacturing Company for infringement of his patents.