Chardonnet, Hilaire

Charcoal production, from wood, 26 360 Chardonnet, Hilaire de, 11 248 Chardonnet process, history of,... 

Synthetic fibres may be made from cellulose or plastics. Hilaire Chardonnet made the first synthetic fibre from cellulose in 1889. Wallace Carothers made the first plastic-based synthetic fibre nylon in 1935. Ladies stockings were the first articles to be made of nylon. Second World War gave a boost to the production of nylon. 

The next inventor to make a mark was Louis Marie Hilaire Bernigaud, the Comte de Chardonnet. He was searching for a way to make a synthetic silk (as we describe in the Polymer Milestone below). Hopefully,... 

Louis-Marie-Hilaire Bernigaud, comte de Chardonnet, born in Besancon, France, is credited with having developed artificial silk, which came to be known as rayon. In the 1860s Chardonnet, originally trained as an engineer, assisted Louis Pasteur in an effort to save the French silk industry from an epidemic affecting silkworms. 

French chemist Hilaire Chardonnet, who invented rayon. 

Louis-Marie-Hilaire Bemigaud, Comte de Chardonnet (1839-1924)... 

Count Hilaire de Chardonnet was an assistant to Pasteur during the silkworm saga. He became fascinated with the way silkworms spin silk, and he thought that, by understanding what the worm did, humankind could also learn to spin the desirable fiber. He was never able to duplicate silk, but he did... 

The first practical, commercial production of rayon was accomplished by a French chemist known as the father of the rayon industry. Count Hilaire de Bernigaud de Chardonnet. Chardonnet studied in Paris under Louis Pasteur, who at that time was investigating a silkworm disease that threatened the important French silk industry. Chardonnet assisted Pasteur in this research and learned a great deal about how the silkworm produced silk. One... 

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