Vinyl is a plastic discovered in 1872 by Eugene Baumann, a German chemist. He left a container of vinyl chloride in the sunlight and a solid plastic formed.
Several years later a different German company tried to use vinyl in some of their products but failed.
In 1926, while working for BF Goodrich, Waldo Semon was experimenting with vinyl polymer and was successful in creating the PVC we use today.