Louis-Marie- Hilaire Bernigaud 1839 - 1924

The artificial silk patented by Hilaire Bernigaud, count de Chardonnet in 1884 was the world’s first synthetic fibre to enter commercial production. Bernigaud originally trained as a civil engineer but then completed his studies under Louis Pasteur, and began work on artificial fibres in 1878. The process he developed employed extrusion of a cellulose nitrate solution through very fine glass capillaries, though much research effort had to be put in to reducing the new fibres’ flammability. The product that became known as Chardonnet silk was first produced in 1891. It generally used cotton linters as the starting material; the plant cellulose reacted with nitric and sulphuric acids and then hydrolysed. It was also known as lustra-cellulose artificial silk or art silk.

The fibres were presented in public for the first time at the Paris Exposition of 1889, and the Societe de la Soie de Chardonnet opened a factory in Besancon, France, soon afterwards to put it into production. Artificial fibres such as Chardonnet silk as it became known broke the previous reliance on entirely natural fibres such as cotton, wool and silk in textile manufactures.

Chardonnet is considered to be a key figure in the story of viscose fabric today, although his process was soon replaced by safer methods of production. Fires were common in the production of Chardonnet silk, putting workers at great risk.