Calico Printers Association

Carothers also produced a number of aliphatic linear polyesters but these did not fulfil his requirements for a fibre-forming polymer which were eventually met by the polyamide, nylon 66. As a consequence the polyesters were discarded by Carothers. However, in 1941 Whinfield and Dickson working at the Calico Printers Association in England announced the discovery of a fibre from poly(ethylene terephthalate). Prompted by the success of such a polymer, Farbenfabriken Bayer initiated a programme in search of other useful polymers containing aromatic rings in the main chain. Carbonic acid derivatives were reacted with many dihydroxy compounds and one of these, bis-phenol A, produced a polymer of immediate promise. 

Whinfield and W. Dickson, working at the Calico Printers Association (2,3). Other polymers pioneered by these workers included poly(l,3-propylene terephthalate), 3GT, poly(l,4-butylene terephthalate), 4GT, and the polyester from ethylene glycol and l,2-6is(4-carbox5 henoxy)ethane, known as CPE-2G or Fiber-0 (4). Of these materials, PET was selected for development as a melt-spinnable synthetic fiber, but commercialization was impossible until after the end of World War II. Eventually, when the various national economies were back on a peacetime footing, PET polymer and fibers derived from it were put into production. The whole market-driving force for polyester at this time was in the form of synthetic fibers. In the United Kingdom, the new material was manufactured by Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. imder the trade name Terylene, while DuPont introduced it to the United States in 1953 as Dacron (see Polyesters, Fibers). 

The first fully synthetic commercial polymer was phenol-formaldehyde, PF, patented hy A. V. Baeyer [1872] and commercialized by Leo H. Baekeland in 1910. In 1916 the first synthetic, methyl rubber was produced (by polymerization of 2,3-dimethylbutadiene) in Farbenfabriken Elberfeld. Around 19151. G. Farbenindustrie started production of polystyrene, PS, Trolitul. By 1935 the company manufactured PS, polyvinyl chloride, PV(3, styrene-butadiene rubber, SBR, and polymethylacrylate, PMA. In 1933 E. Fawcet and R. Gibson at ICI discovered polyethylene, LDPE, commercialized six years later. Polyethyleneterephthalate, PET, discovered by J. R. infield and J. T. Dickson at Calico Printers Association [1941], was introduced by ICI in 1946 as Terylene fibers. 

The chemistry for these two classes of polymers goes back to the pioneering work of Wallace Carothers at DuPont which led to the development of nylon 6-6, poly(hexamethylene adipamide), the first man-made fiber. Carothers also investigated the aliphatic polyesters, but found them too low in melting point to serve as fibers. In England, however, J. R. Whinfield and J. T. Dickson of Calico Printers Association [British Patent 578,079 (1946)] developed... 

As a result of the DuPont patents for nylon, in 1937 Whinfield and Dickson, of the Calico Printers Association in England, became interested in polyesters based on aromatic dicaiboxyhc acids and ethylene glycol. Carotheis had, of course, abandoned his own early work following the disappointing results with aliphatic dicarboxylic acids. Whinfield and Dickson quickly produced a long-chain polyester and decided to patent the discoveiy, which was eventually licensed to ICI. The patent was actually granted in 1941 and ICl built the first commercial production unit in late 1954. ... 

The Calico printers Association sold their patent rights to ICI which registered the patent in 1946 [72]. Since October 1929 ICI and DuPont had an agreement to exchange information about patents and research development. On this basis DuPont purchased patent rights from ICI, filed two additional patents in 1949 [73, 74] and commercialized PET fibers under the trademark Dacron . Whinfield went to work for ICI in 1947 and supervised the development of the Terylene fiber. Whinfield was honored as Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1954, he obtained the honorary fellowship of the textile Industry in 1953 and the Perkin Medal in 1956. He died in Dorking, Surrey, in July 1966. 

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