safety glass was invented in 1903 by the French chemist Edouard Benedictus, inspired by a laboratory accident. A glass flask had become coated with the plastic cellulose nitrate and when dropped shattered but did not break into pieces. Benedictus fabricated a glass-plastic composite to reduce injuries in car accidents.[citation needed] It was not immediately adopted by automobile manufacturers, but laminated glass was widely used in the eyepieces of gas masks during World War I.