Cellophane film was invented by Jacques E Brandenberger in 1908, a Swiss textile engineer who first thought of the idea for a clear, protective, packaging layer in 1900.
Brandenberger was seated at a restaurant when a customer spilt wine onto the tablecloth. As the waiter replaced the cloth, Brandenberger decided that he should invent a clear flexible film that could be applyed to cloth, making it waterproof.
Jacques E Brandenberger experimented with many different materials, including applying liquid viscose (a cellulose product known as rayon) to cloth, however, the viscose made the cloth too stiff. The experiment failed but Brandenberger noted that the coating peeled off in a transparent film.
Like so many inventions, the original use for Cellophane film was abandoned and new and better uses were found. By 1908, Brandenberger developed the first machine for the manufacture of transparent sheets of regenerated cellulose. By 1912, Brandenberger was making a saleable thin flexible film used in gas masks.