From the first recorded uses of flax as a textile fiber around 5,000 B.C.E., to the adoption of cotton, wool, and silk, people have always been ready to exploit any material that can be made into long flexible fibers and woven or knitted into fabric.
In 1655 the English scientist Robert Hooke first proposed creating artificial silk from a gelatinous mass, but it it took another 200 years for anyone to realize that ambition. In 1895 the Swiss chemist Georges Audemars made a mixture or pulp from the bark of a mulberry tree and rubber. By dipping a needle into this mess he was able to draw out fibers of artificial silk. His process took a long time for each fiber and was too slow to be of any practical use. In 1884 the French chemist, Comte Hilaire Bernigaud de Chardonnet , having refined the method used by Audemars, patented "Chardonnay silk." It was very flammable and expensive and, despite causing a sensation at the Paris Exhibition in 1889, it was never particularly successful.
Various companies tried to produce artificial silk, but it was not until 1910 that a commercially successful version was made by the American Viscose Company. By the 1920s it was possible to buy this man-made fiber for half the price of silk and, in 1924 the word rayon was coined to describe the fiber. Rayon is extremely versatile and, because it is made from naturally occurring polymers found in plant cellulose, it has properties similar to those of natural fibers. Crucially, however, unlike more modern fibers such as nylon, rayon does not insulate the body, and so it allows clothes to "breathe," making them more comfortable to wear during hot weather.
