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Who is known as the father of the rayon industry?

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Figure 1: Three common polymer structures. The linear, branched, and network architectures are represented (from top), respectively, by high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and phenol formaldehyde (PF). The chemical structure and molecular structure of highlighted regions are also shown.
man-made fibre Figure 1: Three common polymer structures. The linear, branched, and network architectures are represented (from top), respectively, by high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and phenol formaldehyde (PF). The chemical structure and molecular structure of highlighted regions are also shown.

The French chemist and industrialist Hilaire Bernigaud, comte de Chardonnet is frequently called the father of the rayon industry.12

While other inventors, such as Sir Joseph Wilson Swan, demonstrated early versions of artificial fibres, Chardonnet is credited with the development of rayon as a practical, commercially viable product. In 1891, he opened a factory in Besançon, France, to produce what became known as Chardonnet silk, the world's first commercially manufactured man-made fibre.21