Objects relating to early viscose rayon (artificial silk) manufacture, c 1900.

The selection of objects includes samples of dyed threads, and parts of the first apparatus for producing continuous viscose filaments. Viscose rayon is a regenerated cellulose and due to the obtained solution being yellow and rather viscous it was known as 'Viscose'. It was produced by Englishmen Charles F Cros and Edward J Bevan and patented by Cros, Bevan and Clayton Beadle in 1892 with the British patents taken over by Courtaulds in 1904.