"Chardonnet silk": knitted rayon fabric sample
date: label: date made
content: 1920s-1930s
notes: label: Description
content: This sample of rayon was collected to document the manufacturing of synthetic textiles. “Chardonese” fabric, more commonly called “Chardonnet silk” after its inventor, is one of the earliest types of rayon and the first commercially produced synthetic fiber. This type of fabric was developed as an alternative to silk by French chemist Hilaire Bernigaud, comte de Chardonnet, and began to be commercially produced in 1891. The Smithsonian requested a fabric sample after seeing a demonstration of synthetic textile manufacturing in 1926 (at the Tenth Exposition of the Chemical Industries in New York City).
label: Description
content: Tubize Chatillon Corporation, a corporation with an office in New York City and a factory in Hopewell, Virginia, donated this sample to the Smithsonian in 1934; at that time it was the third-largest manufacturer of rayon in the U.S.. The story of how they began manufacturing rayon also exemplifies the overlap between military and domestic industries. Cardonnet silk is made out of nitrocellulose (cellulose, sometimes from a plant such as cotton, which has been treated with nitric acid). However, beginning in the late 19th century, nitrocellulose was also used to make gunpowder. During World War I, the du Pont company, then the largest munitions manufacturer in the U.S., opened a large nitrocellulose plant in Hopewell to supply the French army with gunpowder. After the war concluded, du Pont left the site, and Tubize Chatillon used the same site for the peaceful purpose of manufacturing nitrocellulose rayon.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Agriculture
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Tubize Chatillon Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AG.A.5259
label: catalog number
content: A.5259
label: accession number
content: 129064
objectType: label: Object Name
content: "Chardonese" Knit Fabric