THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK 
I 
Chardonnet was called * the Father of the 
Artificial Silk Trade.” 
This he certainly was not. He might truly 
be called its ‘ godfather’ or some similar 
title. He was for a time its best friend and 
propagandist. 
But his method of making Artificial Silk— 
the nitro-cellulose process—has almost en- 
tirely gone out of use. Only 4 per cent. of 
all the Artificial Silk made in 1927 was made 
by his process. The real creators of the trade 
—the men who solved both the problems of 
making and marketing—were Henry Green- 
wood Tetley and Sir Thomas Latham, two 
of the Directors of Courtaulds. 
Chardonnet has had more credit than he 
deserves. Tetley and Latham have had less 
than they deserve. Chardonnet was a shining, 
conspicuous figure. He was a Count. He 
was the only man of hereditary title who has 
ever had anything to do with the Artificial 
Silk business. He was a picturesque figure— 
a man of imposing appearance, with white 
moustache and side-whiskers. Tetley and 
Latham, on the other hand, were plain, 
practical English business men, who were 
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