Timeline of Synthetic Fiber

How Nylon Was Discovered - Ri > . 

Timeline of Manmade Fibers

By 1910 Camille and Henry Dreyfus were making acetate motion picture film and toilet articles in Basel, Switzerland. During World War I, they built a plant in England to produce cellulose acetate dope for airplane wings and other commercial products. Upon entering the War, the United States government invited the Dreyfus brothers to build a plant in Maryland to make the product for American warplanes.

1924 First commercial textile uses for acetate in fiber form were developed by the Celanese Company.

Mid-1920's Textile manufacturers could purchase the rayon and acetate fibers for half the price of raw silk, and so began manufactured fibers' gradual conquest of the American fiber market. This modest start in the 1920's grew to nearly 70% of the national market for fiber by the last decade of the century.

1931 American chemist Wallace Carothers reported on research carried out in the laboratories of the DuPont Company on “giant” molecules called polymers. He focused his work on a fiber referred to simply as “66,” a number derived from its molecular structure. Nylon, the “miracle fiber,” was born. The Chemical Heritage Foundation is currently featuring an exhibit on the history of nylon.

1938 Paul Schlack of the I.G. Farben Company in Germany, polymerized caprolactam and created a different form of the polymer, identified simply as nylon “6.” Nylon's advent created a revolution in the fiber industry. Rayon and acetate had been derived from plant cellulose, but nylon was synthesized completely from petrochemicals. It established the basis for the ensuing discovery of an entire new world of manufactured fibers.

1939 Vinyon was first produced in 1939 by American Viscose, now FMC Corporation.

1939 DuPont began commercial production of nylon. The first experimental testing used nylon as sewing thread, in parachute fabric, and in women's hosiery. Nylon stockings were shown in February 1939 at the San Francisco Exposition and the most exciting fashion innovation of the age was underway. American women had only a sampling of the beauty and durability of their first pairs of nylon hose when their romance with the new fabric was cut short when the United States entered World War II.

1941 The War Production Board allocated all production of nylon for military use. During the War, nylon replaced Asian silk in parachutes. It also found use in tires, tents, ropes, ponchos, and other military supplies, and even was used in the production of a high-grade paper for U.S. currency. At the outset of the War, cotton was king of fibers, accounting for more than 80% of all fibers used. Manufactured and wool fibers shared the remaining 20%.

August 1945 By the end of the war cotton stood at 75% of the fiber market. Manufactured fibers had risen to 15%. After the war, GI's came home,families were reunited, industrial America gathered its peacetime forces, and economic growth surged. The conversion of nylon production to civilian uses started and when the first small quantities of postwar nylon stockings were advertised, thousands of frenzied women lined up at New York department stores to buy. In the immediate post-war period, most nylon production was used to satisfy this enormous pent up demand for hosiery.

Late 1940's Nylon was also being used in carpeting and automobile upholstery. At the same time, three new generic manufactured fibers started production. Dow Badische Company (today, BASF Corporation) introduced metalized fibers; Union Carbide Corporation developed modacrylic fiber; and Hercules, Inc. added olefin fiber.

http://www.textileschool.com/articles/415/timeline-of-manmade-fibers .

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