A Short History of Manufactured

Fibers
For thousands of years, the use of fiber was limited by the inherent qualities available in the
natural world. Cotton and linen wrinkled from wear and washings. Silk required delicate
handling. Wool shrank, was irritating to the touch, and was eaten by moths. Then, a mere
century ago, rayon the first manufactured fiber was developed. The secrets of fiber
chemistry for countless applications had begun to emerge.
Manufactured fibers now are put to work in modern apparel, home furnishings, medicine,
aeronautics, energy, industry, and more. Fiber engineers can combine, modify and tailor
fibers in ways far beyond the performance limits of fiber drawn from the silkworm cocoon,
grown in the fields, or spun from the fleece of animals.
The Early Attempts

The earliest published record of an attempt to create an artificial fiber took place in 1664.
English naturalist Robert Hooke suggested the possibility of producing a fiber that would be
if not fully as good, nay better than silk. His goal remained unachieved for more than two
centuries.
The first patent for artificial silk was granted in England in 1855 to a Swiss chemist named
Audemars. He dissolved the fibrous inner bark of a mulberry tree, chemically modifying it to
produce cellulose. He formed threads by dipping needles into this solution and drawing them
out - but it never occurred to him to emulate the silkworm by extruding the cellulosic liquid
through a small hole.
In the early 1880's, Sir Joseph W. Swan, an English chemist and electrician, was spurred to
action by Thomas Edison's new incandescent electric lamp. He experimented with forcing a
liquid similar to Audemars solution through fine holes into a coagulating bath. His fibers
worked like carbon filament, and they found early use in Edison's invention.
It also occurred to Swan that his filament could be used to make textiles. In 1885 he exhibited
in London some fabrics crocheted by his wife from his new fiber. But electrical lamps
remained his main interest, and he soon abandoned work on textile applications.
First Commercial Production

The first commercial scale production of a manufactured fiber was achieved by French
chemist Count Hilaire de Chardonnet. In 1889, his fabrics of artificial silk caused a
sensation at the Paris Exhibition. Two years later he built the first commercial rayon plant at
Besancon, France, and secured his fame as the father of the rayon industry.
Several attempts to produce artificial silk in the United States were made during the early
1900's but none were commercially successful until the American Viscose Company, formed
by Samuel Courtaulds and Co., Ltd., began production its production of rayon in 1910.
In 1893, Arthur D. Little of Boston, invented yet another cellulosic product acetate and
developed it as a film. 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. The first commercial textile
uses for acetate in fiber form were developed by the Celanese Company in 1924.
In the meantime, U.S. rayon production was growing to meet increasing demand. By the mid1920's, textile manufacturers could purchase the fiber for half the price of raw silk.
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.
Nylon The Miracle Fiber

In September 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.
By 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.
An American Romance

DuPont began commercial production of nylon in 1939. 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. The United States entered World
War II in December 1941 and the War Production Board allocated all production of nylon for
military use. Nylon hose, which sold for $ 1.25 a pair before the War, moved in the black
market at $10. Wartime pin-ups and movie stars, like Betty Grable, auctioned nylon hose for
as much as $40,000 a pair in war-effort drives.
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 highgrade 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%. By the end of the War in August 1945, cotton stood at 75% of the fiber market.
Manufactured fibers had risen to 15%.
The Post-War Industry

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. But by the end of the 1940's, it 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.
Manufactured fibers continued their steady march.
By the 1950's, the industry was supplying more than 20% of the fiber needs of textile mills. A
new fiber, acrylic, was added to the list of generic names, as DuPont began production of
this wool-like product.
Meanwhile, polyester, first examined as part of the Wallace Carothers early research, was
attracting new interest at the Calico Printers Association in Great Britain. There, J. T. Dickson
and J. R. Whinfield produced a polyester fiber by condensation polymerization of ethylene
glycol with terephthalic acid. DuPont subsequently acquired the patent rights for the United
States and Imperial Chemical Industries for the rest of the world. A host of other producers
soon joined in.

A Wash and Wear Revolution

In the summer of 1952, wash and wear was coined to describe a new blend of cotton and
acrylic. The term eventually was applied to a wide variety of manufactured fiber blends.
Commercial production of polyester fiber transformed the wash and wear novelty into a
revolution in textile product performance.
Polyester's commercialization in 1953 was accompanied by the introduction of triacetate. The
majority of the 20th century's basic manufactured fibers now had been discovered, and the
industry's engineers turned to refining their chemical and physical properties to extend their
use across the American economy.
In the 1960's and 1970's consumers bought more and more clothing made with polyester.
Clotheslines were replaced by electric dryers, and the wash and wear garments they dried
emerged wrinkle free. Ironing began to shrink away on the daily list of household chores.
Fabrics became more durable and color more permanent. New dyeing effects were being
achieved and shape-retaining knits offered new comfort and style.

Endless Possibilities

In the 1960's, manufactured fiber production accelerated as it was spurred on by continuous

fiber innovation. The revolutionary new fibers were modified to offer greater comfort,
provide flame resistance, reduce clinging, release soil, achieve greater whiteness, special
dullness or luster, easier dyeability, and better blending qualities. New fiber shapes and
thicknesses were introduced to meet special needs. Spandex, a stretchable fiber; aramid, a
high-temperature-resistant polyamide; and para-aramid, with outstanding strength-to-weight
properties, were introduced into the marketplace.

In the early 1960's, manufactured fiber accounted for nearly 30% of American textile mill
consumption. By 1965, the manufactured fiber industry was providing over 40% of the
nation's fiber needs.
One dramatic new set of uses for manufactured fibers came with the establishment of the
U.S. space program. The industry provided special fiber for uses ranging from clothing for
the astronauts to spaceship nose cones. When Neil Armstrong took One small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind, on the moon on July 20, 1969, his lunar space suit included
multi-layers of nylon and aramid fabrics. The flag he planted was made of nylon.
Today, the exhaust nozzles of the two large booster rockets that lift the space shuttle into orbit
contain 30,000 pounds of carbonized rayon. Carbon fiber composites are used in as structural
components in the latest commercial aircraft, adding strength and lowering weight and fuel
costs.

Safety and Energy Challenges

The early 1970's saw a wave of consumer protection demands, most notably one for a
mandated Federal flammability standard for children's sleepwear. The manufactured fiber
industry spent $20 million on flammability research and development in 1972 and 1973, and
manufactured fiber fabrics became predominant in this market. Flammability standards were
also issued for carpet and other products. In the U.S. carpet market, 99% of all surface fibers
are now manufactured fibers.
In late 1973, when the Nation was struck by a severe energy crisis, the manufactured fiber
industry reduced the energy required to produce a pound of fiber by 26%. By then, the
industry was using but 1% of the Nation's petroleum supply to provide two-thirds of all fibers
used by American textile mills.

Today

Innovation is the hallmark of the manufactured fiber industry. Fibers more numerous and
diverse than any found in nature are now routinely created in the industry's laboratories.
Nylon variants, polyester, and olefin are used to produce carpets that easily can be rinsed
clean even 24 hours after they've been stained. Stretchable spandex and machinewashable, silk-like polyesters occupy solid places in the U.S. apparel market. The finest
microfibers are remaking the world of fashion.
For industrial uses, manufactured fibers relentlessly replace traditional materials in
applications from super-absorbent diapers, to artificial organs, to construction materials for
moon-based space stations. Engineered non-woven products of manufactured fibers are found
in applications from surgical gowns and apparel interfacing to roofing materials, road bed
stabilizers, and floppy disk envelopes and liners. Non-woven fabrics, stiff as paper or as soft
and comfortable as limp cloth, are made without knitting or weaving.
As they always have, manufactured fibers continue to mean, life made better.

First Commercial U.S. Production

1910 Rayon

1941 Saran

1959 Spandex

1924 Acetate

1946 Metallic

1961 Aramid

1930 Rubber

1949 Modacylic

1983 PBI

1936 Glass

1949 Olefin

1983 Sulfar

1939 Nylon

1950 Acrylic

1992 Lyocell

1939 Vinyon

1953 Polyester

MAN-MADE FIBERS HISTORY

Artificial cellulose fibers

The first man-made fibers which were developed and produced used polymers of
natural origin, more precisely of cellulose which is a raw material available in large quantities
in the vegetable world.
The beginning of industrial production of man-made fibers goes back to the year 1890,
when the French Count Hilaire de Chardonnet started up his plant for the production of
Chardonnet silk (initial output: 50 kg per day), using the cellulose nitrate process.
As it happens in general in the case of technical-scientific developments, this
achievement was the result of previous studies and researches (since approximately the
year 1840) focused mainly on the chemical properties of cellulose.
In particular the researchers found the way to treat cellulose (a material insoluble in
usual solvents and inflammable) with nitric acid (nitrification), to dissolve the derivative with
solutions of alcohol-ether, to prepare suitable extrusion devices (spinnerets) and finally to
regenerate cellulose through saponification in alkaline baths (denitrification) in order to
eliminate the danger inherent in the nitro compound (inflammable and explosive). Actually
the birth date of the artificial silk (such was the name given to this fibre at its introduction) is
said to date back some years before (1884) when an Englishman, Mr Swan, produced small
quantities of nitrocellulose which the researcher had in mind to user the development of
incandescent bulbs.
More or less in the same period another way had been searched for to make
cellulose capable of being spun, after being discovered that cellulose could be dissolved in a
mixture of copper oxide and ammonia (Schweitzers reagent, 1857). In fact this principle had
been the basis in Germany for the production initially of incandescent bulbs (1891), then of
cuprammonium fibers (1897) via the so-called cupro process, which was improved with the
draw-spinning process (1891) and resulted in the production of Bemberg cupro yarn in 1909.
Meanwhile a patent had been registered in England by the researchers Cross, Bevan
and Beadle (1892) for the production of sodium cellulose xanthate and for its dissolution in
dilute caustic soda. In this way the basis were laid for the production of a man-made
cellulose fibre, now called viscose, which remained for decades the main process in use for
the production of manmade fibers.
The first industrial plants were built some years later in England and in Germany
(early 1900), and contributed to the rapid decline and giving up of the Chardonnet process
(which was left off in Germany in 1911).
One of the various chemical properties of cellulose which found particular interest
was the possibility of esterificating with acetic acid the three hydroxylic groups contained in
the glycosidic group of cellulose; the first product to be obtained was triacetate (1894) which,
as it was later on discovered, could be partially hydrolized (1905) into a product which was
easily soluble in acetone.
However only later on the most was made of the capacity of cellulose acetates to be
transformed into fibers; the fibre which attained more relevance was cellulose diacetate
(1919-1921), commonly named acetate, whereas triacetate (produced since 1914) found
limited commercial interest owing to its difficult dissolution, restricted only to chloroform.
Cellulose fibers were produced with said processes in form of continuous filament yarns, as
the primary objective of the researchers was the reproduction of the morphology and, at least
7 partially, of the properties of raw silk (from which the term artificial silk originated). In 1920
the fibre was made available also in form of staple fibre (Vistra, Germany) and as such
attained in time relevant market importance.
Recent years saw the development of a process for the production of cellulose fibers
using a solvent specifically studied for cellulose (N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide), which on one
hand safeguarded to a greater extent the inherent properties of the original cellulose
structure and on he other permitted the use of processes less polluting than traditional ones.
In this connection we cannot but emphasize the role played by the Italian industry within the
sector of cellulose fibers.
The first factories sprang up at the beginning of last century thanks to the initiative of
French chemical groups and in 1914 could supply 150 tons of rayon (this was the name
given to the ontinuous filament fibre).
The first post-war period saw the successful coming on stage of the company SNIA

which, through the concentration of various production units, became at the end of the 20s
one of the major world producers of viscose rayon and later on of viscose staple fibre. In
1927 the production of cuprammonium yarn was started on behalf of the company Seta
Bemberg S.A.. In short, the Italian production rose from 320 tons in 1919 to 32,500 tons in
1929, so that Italy became the leading producer in Europe with a 16% share of world
production. At the outbreak of the 2nd World War the Italian production had reached 120,000
tons.
The post-war period recorded a recovery of this industry, which reached its peak with
226,000 tons in 1964; from that date on, at first slowly and later at a quick pace, artificial
fibers made room for synthetic fibers. As regards artificial fibers, it needs to be reminded that
this group of fibers includes also fibers which have as raw materials natural polymers other
than cellulose, like fibers derived from proteins.
A considerable historical significance was attained in Italy by protein fibers derived
from casein, which were produced initially by SNIA in 1936 (researcher: Ferretti) under the
name Lanital, later on renamed into Merinova.
Protein fibers of animal origin (casein from milk) stopped to have commercial
significance, whereas still to-day a certain interest is enjoyed, especially in the USA, by
protein fibers of vegetable origin (maize, peanuts).
Synthetic fibers
The development and production of synthetic fibers (obtained by synthesis of
chemical compounds) are a rather recent achievement. The delay in developing these fibers
is to be ascribed to an insufficient knowledge of the structure of natural polymers (such as
cellulose, rubber, natural fibers), which were difficult to be studied from the chemical point of
view because they were nor fusible, nor reactive and not even soluble: in short, they were
completely different from usual chemical substances.
The basic studies carried out in the 1920s by Staudinger, a German researcher,
brought out the fact that natural polymers are formed by linear macromolecules, that is by
long thread-like chains, reproducible through the reaction of suitable, relatively simple
molecules. Even if the date of birth of synthetic fibers is traced back to the production in 1931
of a chlorovinyl fibre (PE-CE, Germany), the fact is that the first real synthetic fibre in
industrial production which would have a heavy impact on the market was the polyamide
fibre, launched by the company DuPont under the trade-name nylon (experimental
production in 1938).
The fibre came to success when the researchers obtained a product (polymerised
amide, from which the name polyamide) by condensation of molecules presenting two
reactive aminic groups (hexamethylenediamine) with molecules characterised by two
carboxylic reactive groups (adipic acid).
In order to be differentiated from other polymers belonging to same chemical class,
this polymer was marked with the acronym 6.6 which indicates the number of carbon atoms
(that is 6) in the two molecules forming the repetitive polymer unit.
In that same period (1939), as a result of researches carried out in Germany by Mr
Schlack in 1938, starting from caprolactam, a single molecule of basic monomer, a new
polyamide fibre was produced under the name Perlon (type 6).
In those years, starting from terephthalic acid and glycol ethylene, polyester fibre was
invented (Whinfield and Dickson, Great Britain, 1941) along with acrylic fibre (German and
American patents, 1942); owing to war vicissitudes, the industrial plants were however
started up only in the early 50s.
It is quite remarkable that in so few years all man-made fibers of primary importance
for the textile sector (polyester, polyamide and acrylic fibers) were developed. Only later on
an Italian researcher, the Italian Nobel prize Giulio Natta, discovered the possibility of
synthesizing polypropylene according to a principle of structural regularity (1954), thus laying
the basis for the production of polypropylene fibre (1959).
This survey on man-made fibers was recently integrated by some fibers of
considerable importance, introduced into the market by the company DuPont: the elastane
fibre Lycra in 1959 and the aramidic fibre Nomex in 1962.
On the scenario of synthetic fibre production, Italy made its appearance in 1939 with
the production of small quantities of nylon (company Montecatini). The war blocked every

development, but the production of polyamide fibers started up again in the post-war period,
to reach 7,500 tons in 1956.
In 1955 the company Rhodiatoce started the production of polyester fibers under the
name Terital; in 1959 the Edison group produced the acrylic fibre named Leacril, followed
in 1961 by the industrial production of the polypropylene fibre named Meraklon.
The producers of man-made fibers renewed in the 60s the great effort made by the
producers of artificial fibers in the 30s, bringing in the years 1960-1970 the share of the
Italian production on world production to about 5%.
However, starting from the years 70s -80s, a slow decline took place owing to lack of
rationalisation of the production plants, to insufficient research and development activity, to
overproduction, to the oil crisis and also to production delocalization from old-industrialised
countries (Europe, USA, Japan) to the newly-industrialized countries of the Far-East (China,
Taiwan, South Korea).