Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
The articles outlined the significance of this work: how countries “under
the spur of national defense” needed to develop synthetic fibers so that
they might be “liberated from foreign imports that might fail in time of
war” yet not “exhaust” their own natural resources.
Figure 2. Installation of the Science Service 'Fabrics for the Future' display in the win-
dow of the Woodward & Lothrop department store, Washington, D.C., February 1939
(SIA RU7091, Box 457). Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Chemists were described in the same glowing, positive terms found else-
where in popular science in 1939: persistent, ingenious, creative, and
able to identify the simplicity hidden in nature's complexity (LaFollette
1990). The articles emphasized traits like economy, frugality, and inven-
tiveness. These “man-made wool fibers” were “economical” and cheap
to produce because they used either less expensive raw materials or dairy
by-products like dried casein powder. Potter praised chemists' “ingenui-
ty” and creativity; in part six, he described how “two advertising men
turned inventors” had developed a new rayon fabric they called “Perval”,
