History of fiber development

Different types of fibers are available today. These fibers are mainly divided into two categories, natural and man-made. They are also classified by generation according to whether they were produced in different years and are known as first, second, third or fourth generation fibers.

History of man-made fibers

The fibers generated first were the natural fibers. Cotton, wool, silk and all other animal and vegetable fibers are included in this category. These fibers were first introduced 4,000 years ago, but their uses continued until 1940. All of these fibers are known as first generation fibers. Very delicate handling is needed for these fibers. Fibers such as silks and cottons do not have good resistance to moths, wrinkles, wear and washing. Therefore, the discovery of durable fibers was a major need and the first synthetic rayon/nylon fibers were produced about a century ago. These fibers are cheaper compared to natural ones. The development of these new fibers opened up the application of fibers to various fields such as medicine, aeronautics, home furnishings, and modern clothing. Fiber engineers produced many new fibers by combining new synthetic fibers with natural ones.

In the year 1664 the first attempt to make artificial fiber was made, but success was achieved after only 200 years. A Swiss chemist, Audemars, first patented man-made fiber in England in 1855. He produced it by dissolving the fibrous inner bark of the mulberry tree and produced cellulose by chemically modifying it. He made threads out of the solution, dipping the needle into the solution and then drawing them out. His attempt was good but he couldn’t copy the silkworm. He had done experiments with the solution similar to the Audemars solution.

French chemist Hilaire de Chardonnet was the first to commercially produce artificial silk in 1889. He was later known as the father of the rayon industry because he was the first to commercially produce rayon on a large scale.

All attempts to produce artificial silk failed until the early 1900s, but in 1910 Samuel Courtaulds and Co. Ltd formed the American Viscose Company and made the production of rayon.

Arthur D. Little of Boston made acetate film which is a cellulosic product in the year 1983 and in the year 1910 Henry Dreyfus and Camille made acetate toiletries and motion picture film in Switzerland. In the year 1924, the Celanese Company made fiber from acetate and it was the first use of acetate in the textile industry. At the time, demand for rayon was high because it was available at half the price of raw silk to textile manufacturers, so US rayon production boomed to meet those higher demands.

about nylon

The miracle fiber called Nylon was invented in September 1931 in the research laboratory of the DuPont Company. They saw giant molecules of these polymers when they were working on Nylon ’66’ and Nylon ‘6’.

Nylon is a completely synthetic fiber obtained from petrochemicals and is very different from rayon and acetate, which are made of cellulosic material from plants. The discovery of Nylon started a new era of manufactured fibers.

A change in lifestyle

In the year 1939, DuPont began commercial production of nylon. Initially, they used nylon experimentally in parachute fabrics, in women’s hosiery, and in sewing thread. Nylon stockings were first visible to the public at the San Francisco Exposition in February 1939.

In times of war, Asian silk was replaced by nylon in parachutes. Nylon’s other uses are in military supplies, ponchos, tires, rope, tents, and the high-quality paper used to make US currency. At the time of the war, cotton was the most widely used fiber and its uses were more than 80% that of any other fiber. Another 20% is shared by wool and other manufactured fibers. August 1945 was the time of the end of the war, at that time cotton shared 75% of the fiber market and saw a 15% increase in the market for manufactured fibers.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *