View source for Hilaire de Chardonnet

{{Short description|French engineer, inventor of artificial silk (1839–1924)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox person
|name          = Count de Chardonnet
|image         = Comte_de_Chardonnay.jpg
|image_size    = 250px
|caption       = Hilaire de Chardonnet sculpture by his daughter Anne de Chardonnet
|birth_name    =
|birth_date    = {{Birth date|1839|5|1|df=y}}
|birth_place   = [[Besançon]], France
|death_date    = {{Death date and age|1924|3|11|1839|5|1|df=y}}
|death_place   = [[Paris]], France
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|nationality   = French
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'''Louis-Marie Hilaire Bernigaud de Grange, Count (''Comte'') de Chardonnet''' (1 May 1839 – 11 March 1924) was a French [[engineer]] and [[industrialist]] from [[Besançon]], and inventor of [[artificial silk]].

In the late 1870s, Chardonnet was working with [[Louis Pasteur]] on a remedy to the epidemic that was destroying French [[silkworms]]. Failure to clean up a spill in the darkroom resulted in Chardonnet's discovery of [[nitrocellulose]] as a potential replacement for real [[silk]]. Realizing the value of such a discovery, Chardonnet began to develop his new product.<ref>{{cite book|last=Garrett|first=Alfred|title=The Flash of Genius|url=https://archive.org/details/flashofgenius00garr|url-access=registration|year=1963|publisher=D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc.|location=Princeton, New Jersey|pages=[https://archive.org/details/flashofgenius00garr/page/48 48]–49}}</ref>

He called his new invention "Chardonnet silk" (''soie de Chardonnet'') and displayed it in the [[Exposition Universelle (1889)|Paris Exhibition of 1889.]]<ref>{{Cite book | last = Editors | first = Time-Life | title = Inventive Genius | publisher = Time-Life Books | location = New York | year = 1991 | isbn = 0-8094-7699-1 | page = [https://archive.org/details/inventivegenius00time/page/52 52] | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/inventivegenius00time/page/52 }}</ref> However, Chardonnet's material was extremely flammable, and was subsequently replaced with other, more stable materials.

He was the first to patent artificial silk, although [[Georges Audemars]] had invented a variety called [[rayon]] in 1855.

== See also ==
* [[Cellatex]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chardonnet, Hilaire De}}
[[Category:1839 births]]
[[Category:1924 deaths]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Besançon]]
[[Category:History of the chemical industry]]
[[Category:19th-century French engineers]]
[[Category:19th-century French inventors]]


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