CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Man-made Fibres

Not content with making marvellous cloth from the materials available naturally, human beings had to invent more sources of making fabric themselves. The first category is called regenerated fibres because they do in fact come from natural raw material such as cotton and wood fibre. These raw fibres are changed so significantly from their original state that there is very little natural about them.

In the second half of the Nineteenth Century a French chemist by the name of Hilaire Chardonnet was experimenting with the possibility of imitating silk. He finally came up with a fibre that suited. It was made from a derivative of plant cellulose, nitrocellulose or cellulose nitrate.

A selection of man-made fibres.

Chardonnet immersed his cellulose into an acidic solution to turn it into a liquefied state. It was then forced through tiny holes simulating the silk gland of the silk moth larvae, known as spinnerets. After drying the remaining substance was strands of nitrocellulose that resembled long silk fibres.

The process was not completely Chardonnet’s invention. In 1883 the English inventor Joseph Swan had been producing fibre in a similar way but to use as the filament for his electric light bulbs and did not take it beyond that. Chardonnet’s input was to further the process by making it into cloth which could be woven. Chardonnet exhibited his artificial silk at the Paris exhibition.

1890 saw another version of rayon made by another Frenchman, Louis Despeissis. In 1892 a pair of English chemists, Charles Cross and Ernest Bevin came up with viscose which did not require the use of the highly flammable cellulose nitrate. It was this version that forms the basis of today’s viscose rayon.

Nylon

It was an American, Wallace H Carothers, who invented nylon, patenting it in 1935. It was the result of one of many experiments using different chemicals in the process of dissolving and pushing through spinnerets. Nylon’s liquid form was particularly suitable for pouring through the tiny holes of the spinneret and when you look closely at the fibres of a nylon stocking it can be seen how fine the holes really are.

Six years later polyester came on the scene, the product of British chemists. After the war acrylics were invented using acrylic acid as the solvent.

The appearance of these man-made fibres took over the textile industry and although it didn’t make natural fibres redundant by any means it certainly affected many of the textile factories producing yarns and fabrics that had been relied upon for thousands of years.

Nylon yarn.

Man-made Fibre Glossary

Acetate: Although a man-made fibre acetate originates from cotton which is melted in acid to make a thick, sticky liquid. It is then spun into fibre and woven into cloth. It was invented in 1921.

 

Acrylic: Consists of acriylontrile which comes from oil that has been made with carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen. It is then liquefied and spun into filament. Acrylic yarn is often further processed by steaming it and cutting it up so it can be spun like fleece.

 

Aramid: This textile was made especially for space travel. It is supremely strong.

 

Bi-component: These are nanofibres consisting of a nylon centre and a polyester outer skin. They are very fine and the threads resemble silk.

 

Nylon: Is made from a combination of benzene, a coal product and hydrogen. It is subjected to the melting process and pushed through the spinneret. It has elastic properties.

 

Polyester: Unlike nylon, polyester does not stretch. It is crease resistant and dries quickly. It is made up of a mixture of petroleum, ethylene glycol and trephthalic acid.

 

Rayon and Viscose: These fibres come from the woodchips of pine or spruce trees. Firstly they are steamed for about 15 hours and then caustic soda is added and the whole is transformed into a thick liquid, the consistency of molten toffee. The mixture is poured through spinnerets to make thread. It is generally used for anything requiring a shiny, satin finish.

Synthetic fibres, on the other hand, are completely manmade constructs. They are composed of long chains of chemical compounds called polymers.

Fake furs.