While pursuing his hobby of photography, the French Count Hilaire de Chardonnet discovered a collodion solution (used to coat glass plates, which were then sensitized with a special solution) from which he could draw long silk-like threads. It was the first reasonable “synthetic” imitation of silk (an “artificial” product, however, is not an imitation but rather an industrially produced ex novo). He patented his process in 1885 and began producing it in 1891. Chardonnet silk, however, proved extremely flammable: it is remembered that at a ball where the gentleman was smoking, some cigar ash fell on the lady’s Chardonnet silk dress, and the dress disappeared in a flash of light and smoke. It is unknown what happened to the lady. In 1901, in England, Charles Cross and Edward Bevan developed viscose, a derivative of cellulose. It will be used by the American Viscose Company (1910) and by DuPont (1921) and will evolve into Rayon: artificial silk.
