The History of Polyester Fabric

First, some history of plastic. (Hey, I’m a professor.) Polyester plastic was discovered in a DuPont lab in the late 1930s, but scientist W. H. Caruthers set it aside to work on his newly discovered nylon. A group of British scientists applied Caruthers’ work in 1941 and created the first commercial polyester fiber in 1941 called Terylene. DuPont purchased the legal rights in 1946 and created another polyester fiber: the now familiar Dacron. Eastman Chemical created another polyester fiber in 1958 called Kodel.

The sublimation Polyester fabric market rapidly expanded, to include by the late ’70s the ubiquitous and much maligned double knit polyester pantsuits, leisure suits, golf pants and other fashion atrocities.

What is Polyester Fabric?
Like other polymers, there are many variations of “polyesters.” The most popular is polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, which is widely used in both packaging and clothing. Polyesters are defined as (snooze alert!) long-chain polymers chemically composed of at least 85 percent by weight of an ester and a di-hydric alcohol and a terephthalic acid. The term refers to many (poly) esters (the building block compound—many fats and fragrances are esters).

Plastics makers produce polyethylene variations under distinctive trade names—thus Terylene, Dacron and Kodel mentioned above.

To make polyester into fibers, the plastic is melt spun, meaning the plastic is heated and forced through spinnerets into fibers (a spinneret is essentially an industrial mechanism similar to a spider’s silk spinning organs). The fibers are stretched to five times their length, typically combined into yarn and then weaved or knitted into polyester fabrics.

Regardless the variation or the decade, polyester fabrics always have been strong, resistant to stretching and shrinking, easy to clean, quick drying and resistant to wrinkles, mildew and abrasions … a perfect combination for clothing.

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