E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Textile Fibers Dept.

The Textile Fibers Department of the Du Pont Company was established in 1936 as the Rayon Department. It was renamed in 1952 to reflect the wider range of fibers being produced and was renamed the Fibers Department in 1988.

The Du Pont Company first began to explore the possibility of diversifying into artificial fibers around 1909, when there was as yet no such capability in the country. Work was delayed by World War I, but in 1918-1919 the Development Department began studying the three existing processes for making artificial silk and selected the viscose process as the most promising. In 1920 Du Pont purchased the American rights to the vicose rayon process from the French cartel, Comptoir des textiles artificiels, and established the Du Pont Fibersilk Company as a joint venture with a plant at Buffalo, N.Y. It was renamed the Du Pont Rayon Company on March 18, 1925, in recognition of the new generic term for artificial silk. A second plant was constructed in 1924-1925 at Old Hickory, Tenn., on the site of the old World War I smokeless powder works.

In 1923 Du Pont purchased the American rights to cellophane from the French firm, La Cellophane, S. A., and established a second joint venture, the Du Pont Cellophane Company, Inc. In 1928 the Du Pont Rayon Company purchased the cellulose acetate process of the Usines du Rhône and the rayon process of the Société Rhodiaceta and established an Acetate Process Department in the Rayon Company.

Du Pont bought out the French interest in both companies in March 1928, after which they were operated jointly with an Acetate Process Department, a Viscose Process Department, and a Cellophane Department. A Special Problems Group, which had been established under W. Hale Charch in 1925, became the Technical Department. Three large plants were completed in 1929, the viscose rayon plant at Richmond, Va. (renamed the Spruance Plant in 1935), the acetate rayon plant at Waynesboro, Va., and the cellophane plant at Old Hickory, Tenn.

The Du Pont Rayon Company and the Du Pont Cellophane Company, Inc., were dissolved by merger into E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company in 1936, and their former properties were organized as the Rayon Department. It consisted of the Rayon Division, the Acetate Process Division, the Cellophane Division, the Control Division and the Technical Division, which operated the Pioneering Research Laboratory at Buffalo. After Nylon was developed on a commercial scale, Nylon production was moved into a new Nylon Division of the Rayon Department in 1938.

During the late 1920s and early 30s the chemists at the Pioneering Research Laboratory concentrated on making stronger rayon filaments, which they hoped could be used in tire cords. When this was done successfully in 1936, the switch from natural to synthetic rubber tires was facilitated. However, the success of Nylon, which had been developed in the Chemical Department, convinced the company's executive committee that the Rayon Department should have greater research capacity, and in 1939 general manager Leonard Yerkes was given permission to move into non-cellulose polymer research. During the 1950s, most of the laboratory's work was focused on determining fiber behavior as it correlated the chemical structure of the polymer with the physical properties of the fiber it produced. By 1958 the laboratory had been the seedbed of such products as Orlon acrylic, Dacron polyester, and Lycra Spandex. Quiana nylon fiber was introduced in 1968.

In 1950 the Cellophane Division was spun off into a separate Film Department. The Rayon Department was renamed the Textile Fibers Department in 1952. At this point the Pioneering Research Laboratory was moved from Buffalo to the Wilmington, Del., Experimental Station, where it became more closely affiliated with the Chemical Department.

From the description of Records, 1925-1970. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122458299