http://w w w .crew Go AUG OCT DEC 26 captures 19 Sep 2000 - 8 Jul 2015 14 2003 2004 2007 About this capture The Rayon Gang The following is from the Chester (PA.) Times of September 7, 1951. The story is interesting to our branch of the Crewdson family because the people sent from England in 1910 to found the US Rayon Industry included my grandfather Henry and his first cousin Robert. It is because of this move that our families came to settle in America. I grew up a few miles away from where this factory was located and was a paper boy for the Times when this story appeared. Needless to say, I didn't notice it. I never got much beyond the sports pages in those days. I am indebted to Dorothy Trianni for giving me a copy of this article and sending me the photo of the Rayon Gang (the Courtauld employees sent from England) that accompanied the story. Gang member Robert Crewdson helped to install the first churning machines in the Marcus Hook plant and went on to work at the plant until he retired in 1941. I am not sure of Henry's role when he started but he went on to help build all the Viscose plants mentioned in the article. In 1917 he was made asst chief engineer of the new Roanoke plant, in 1920 he was chief engineer at Lewistown and by 1924 was the chief engineer of the entire company. After he retired in 1948 he went on to a long career as a consultant until his final retirement in 1965 at the age of 82. The story itself reads as though it was written in the American Viscose PR department and it probably was. You would probably have to be a die-hard fan of the Crewdson saga to read it through. American Rayon Industry Born at Marcus Hook Samuel Agar Salvage, the founder of the American rayon industry, was born in London in 1876, the same year the Chester Times was started. That was also the year that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and Louis Pasteur developed the theory of germs. There were, of course, no radios, no automobiles, no airplanes, and the man-made fiber called rayon was yet to be produced. Seventeen years later young Samuel Salvage sailed for the United States to seek his fortune-one of 400,000 men and women who immigrated to this country in 1893. Another 17 years passed before Salvage came to Marcus Hook. Here, at his suggestion, the English textile firm of Samuel Courtauld & Co. built the first commercially successful rayon plant in this country. Spinning "artificial silk," as it was called then, started at Marcus Hook on a Sunday night, just seven days before Christmas in 1910. Production Then and Now Total United States Production in 1911, the first full year, was 362,000 pounds of yarn. All of it was made at the Marcus Hook plant of what is now the American Viscose Corp. Forty years later, in 1950, total United States production was 1,260,000,000 pounds. In 1950 American Viscose Corp. alone in its seven rayon plants made 416,000,000 pounds, or more than 1000 times as much as it turned out in 1911. Production this year, both by the industry as a whold and by the Avisco, is expected to be even greater. The growth of rayon to its present outstanding place among the world's outstanding textile fibers is one of the phenomena of this industrial age. Its success in this country is credited largely to the perseverance and confidence displayed by Samuel Salvage. After landing in New York in 1893, young Salvage went first to Cincinnati, OH, where he worked for a company of wholesale china and glass merchants for a year. According to his own story, he "broke too much glassware" and left in 1896 to go to New York. Hired by Linen Firm Business conditions were poor that year and young Salvage rang many a door bell before he was hired by J. B. Locke & Potts, a linen firm. He worked there several months, then became associated with William M. Crowe a yarn merchant and - in 1897 - started his own small business as an importer and salesman of cotton yarns. Under the name of S. A. Salvage Co., he gradually built up an excellent trade, particularly for fine-count English yarns. Among the goods he imported was some "artificial silk" from Germany. He found a market for it in the braid and trimming trade, but no one else wanted it. Deliveries from Germany were poor, Salvage recalled years later, "but I believed in the product," he said. "When Samuel Cortauld & Co. started to make artificial silk, I got hold of some and sampled the trade with it. It was entirely satisfactory and I finally got their agency here in 1908". It was the next year that Salvage wrote Courtaulds to suggest that they buy the viscose patents for the United States and build a plant here. The proposition, said to have been sent on a postcard, was accepted; the American Viscose Co. was formed, and Marcus Hook was chosen as the site for a plant. Industry Began in 1910 Building soon started, but was not completed, when on that fateful Sunday night, just seven days before Christmas in 1910, a little group of Englishmen and Americans gathered anxiously to watch the first yarn form as the Viscose solution was pumped through a spinning jet. As the yarn formed the Americans grew excited, but the Englishmen, true to their tradition, did not change expression. After all, they had seen the same thing at Courtaulds in Coventry, England. The next morning at seven o'clock, without ceremony, the first five machines were started. Soon rayon was all over the floor, stuck to the walls, the benches and the ceiling, for only a few men who had come over from England knew how to handle the sticky, wet yarn. Most, if not all, the rayon made on that Monday and for some time to come went into the waste basket. In 1916, Salvage went to London to tell the directors that a second plant was needed to satisfy the growing demand for yarn. With some trepidation he reported that eight million dollars were required. "They told me," he said in later years, "to go right ahead-what was Iwaiting for? They were-and are-very far-sighted people, and have encouraged and stimulated me to an extraordinary degree. The confidence they placed in me has been priceless." They further demonstrated their confidence in him that year by electing him vice-president of Viscose Co. The second plant was built at Roanoke, VA., and started operating in October 1917. It was followed, as the years went on, by plants at Lewistown, PA.; Parkersburg, WV.; and Front Royal, VA. Name "Rayon" is Adopted As other producers entered the field pioneered by The Viscose Co., the need was felt for a name of its own for the fiber known as "artificial silk". Salvage presided at a conference in 1924 to choose a name. Many were suggested, among them "glos," "filatex," "klis" (silk spelled backwards), "glistra," and "filacel." Kenneth Lord of the textile firm of Galey & Lord, Inc., suggested "rayon". The name met with wide approval and the new fiber at last achieved its own identity. Samuel Salvage who had always advocated that the man-made fiber should stand on its own merits, was well pleased. In May, 1925, Salvage was elected president of the Viscose Co., a post he held until 1937, when he became chairman of the board. Two years later he retired as chairman, but remained as a director and consultant until his death in 1946. During his active tenure, the company was the leading producer of rayon in the United States-a position it still firmly maintains. Growth Credited to Research Born in the laboratory, rayon owes its success, it is generally agreed, to continuing research. It is a search for new and better products, at lower prices, which together make for a better life for everyone. The fact that rayon is man-made means that, like the automobile and the airplane, it can be engineered to meet the requirements of an inteded use. For this reason American Viscose Corp., has long recognized that the rayon industry requires an extensive and well planned research program covering all phases of the business from raw materials to the production of finished products by its customers. This research program is centered largely at Marcus Hook. Here, 12 years ago, American Viscose Corp. established its unique textile research department, which contains the elements of six of more full-size textile mills. There is one for cotton spinning, one for the woolen system of spinning, one for the worsted system, one for warping and weaving, one for knitting, and one for dyeing and finishing. Her, under one roof, may be seen and studied the methods used throughout the textile industry in that infinetly complex process by which textile fibers are converted into finished goods. The department's work is primarily research on new developments-new techniques, new machinery, new fabrics, new fibers for new uses, and new uses for existing fibers. At the same time, it constantly checks the company's products to make sure they perform as its customers want them to. At Marcus Hook also are the company's chemical research and mechanical development departments. At Nitro, WV is a rayon staple development plant, in addition to the commercial rayon plant there, and in New York, is the fabric development department. Rayon Suits and Carpets New kinds of rayon, new products of rayon and new markets for rayon are continually being developed. In 1950, for the first time rayon was used in more than half of all men's summer suits and in heavier-weight suits it passed from the experimental stage to volume production. This fall and winter the stores will feature all-rayon and rayon blend suits and top coats in a wide range of colors and tailoring. Avisco "15" a new carpet staple, was introduced only a year ago. Yet seven out of ten of the carpet lines on sale today contain rayon. Rayon is also playing a much bigger part in the current mobilization for defense thatn it did in 1940 and 1941, and it played a big part then. Sof far the bulk of the rayon covered by defense orders is going into tires, linings for uniforms, aerial delivery and cargo parachutes. The armed services however, are evidencing greater and greater interst in rayon for use in uniforms. Thus the company which Samuel Salvage founded 41 years ago continues to expand. Built originally by the English firm of Courtaulds Ltd., the corporation is now largely owned and managed by Americans. There are 16,000 shareholders many of whom are among the corporation's 22,000 employees. The corporation is managed by a board of directors elected by those shareholders. Seven corporation executives are members of the board. Chairman of the board and president is Dr. Frank H. Reichel, who joined the company in 1946, when it acquired the assets and business of Sylvania Industrial Corp., now the Sylvania Division which makes cellophane. Hook Plant Managers Harry Johnston Grant was Hook plant manager until 1911 and Dr. Charles A. Ernst took over and served in the post until 1916 when Charles E. Baldwin became manager. Baldwin was followed by J. Arthur Hayes in 1925 and he was in the post until 1939 when Fredrick F. Long became manager. Long was transferred to the firm's Lewistown plant in 1949 and was succeeded by Harold J. Michel, present plant manager. Seven local workers who started with the Hook plant when it opened still are associated there. In this group are Samuel W. Casperson... Ed Bettner...Joseph H. Scott... Michael J Mortimer... Harold J. Oaks of Ridley Park, Ernest D. Copson of Claymont and Jacy Elliott. Postscript In later years, American Viscose Corp. was acquired by the FMC Corporation in San Jose, California and today is the basis of their Chemical Division. In the late 1960's, when I was a research scientist at the Stanford Research Institute, I happened to sit next to Jim Tait, the Chairman of the Board of FMC, on a cross country flight. In the course of conversation he asked my name and then asked if I was related to Harry Crewdson. When I said he was my grandfather, Jim went on for some time about granddad who he said was the smartest engineer he ever met. When Jim learned that I was an engineer myself, and worked in the field of shock wave physics, he invited me to visit FMC to see if I had any insights to offer in solving some problems FMC was having in the manufacture of fighting vehicles for the army. It was not my background or personality that impressed Jim Tait, it was the fact that Henry was my grandfather and maybe some of his genius had rubbed off on me. Probably not enough rubbed off because I was not able to offer any practical help. Some years later I visited the Philadelphia headquarters of the FMC Chemical Division on a sales call and found myself in a waiting room presided over by an dignified woman who looked like she was ready to retire. When she heard my name she exclaimed that she was an assistant to Henry Crewdson's secretary back when he was chief engineer and proceeded to tell me at length what a wonderful man he was. In 1973 Viscose was purchased from FMC by Avtex Corporation which went bankrupt 10 years later, closing down and abandoning plants that once employed thousands.
