XIX. THE RAYON INDUSTRY IN THE SOUTH
The past decade has witnessed a veritable renaissance in the industrial life of the South, followed by a steady progressive movement, the end of which is not yet in sight. Among the many industries which have been a part of this great forward march, the rayon industry holds a unique position. The necessary expansion of the rayon companies to meet the demand for the product came a t a time when the South was experiencing its growing pains. What more natural than that a locality, ripe for industrial expansion and containing the contributing economic factors of raw materials, markets, transportation facilities, power, fuel and water supply, and labor, should attract an industry about to emerge from its chrysalis. The first plant was built a t Roanoke, Virginia, in 1917. From that starting point the industry has developed until, a t present, the plants in Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina have a combined capacity of about 85.5 million pounds annually or about 53 per cent of the United States production. All of the commercial processes for producing rayon are utilized in the various plants of these states. Manufacturing Processes Rayon is an entirely new textile material, having a different chemical composition from silk, and an entirely distinct set of physical properties. Natural silk is an animal fiber produced by a large variety of worms as well as spiders. Owing to the fact that the spider web is exceedingly difficult to untangle, i t has never been a commercial source for silk production. The culture of silk worms for the production of silk is very difficult hut has become very highly developed, especially in Japan. The eggs of the silk worm require from thirteen to twenty days to hatch, and about fifty to fifty-five days elapse before the worm begins spinning its cocoon. During this time the worms consume about one ton of ripe mulberry leaves for every twelve pounds of silk obtained. The strength, beauty, and softness of silk fabrics induced scientists to search for methods of producing an artificial silk in order to keep pace with the demand. While a true "artificial silk" has never been obtained. these attempts have led to the creation of an entirely new textile fiberrayon. 2354
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The first commercial success was due to Count Chardonnet. He had been working on some of the diseases of the silk worm and also had considerable experience with gun cotton. He noticed that the cellulose nitrate always had a high luster and that the starting point for natural silk was the same substance, namely, cellulose. Working along these lines Chardonnet produced the first commercially successful rayon in 1880. In order to get a better understanding of the four processes for producing rayon we should first understand something about cellulose. Every one is familiar with wood alcohol and grain alcohol and, while familiar with glycerin, they may or may not realize that i t is also an alcohol. Some of the reactions of glycerin are well known. For example, if we treat glycerin with a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids we ohtain an explosive known as "nitroglycerin." If we use some other acids in place of nitric and sulfuric we can obtain fats and oils. The breaking up of nitroglycerin into glycerin and nitric acid is difficult to control. However, if we boil a fat or a? oil with lye we obtain glycerin and a soap. To the chemist, cellulose, whether obtained from cotton or wood, is an alcohol similar in type to glycerin. If we treat cotton with nitric and sulfuric acids we obtain cellulose nitrate, which is much less dangerous than nitroglycerin. The cellulose nitrate when dissolved in suitable solvents
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gives us a solution which can be forced through a glass or metal cap containing a number of very h e holes. On removing the solvent we have left the fine, thread-like filaments. If next we remove the nitric acid we have our cellulose in the form of these fine filaments which are twisted together to form our rayon thread. This was the method used by Count Chardonnet and is still known as the Chardonnet or nitro process. If in place of nitric acid we had treated our cotton with acetic acid we would have obtained cellulose acetate. This is the same substance used in making non-inflammable films for the picture industry. The cellulose acetate is dissolved and spun in much the same way as in the nitro process. The threads produced by the "acetate" process, however, are not changed back into cellulose but remain as cellulose acetate. A third process, the cuprammonium process, makes use of an ammoniacal solution of copper for dissolving the cellulose. The viscose process uses lye of a special strength and then a compound of carbon and sulfur which converts the cellulose into a soluble compound. In these last two processes the threads are regenerated into cellulose threads. About 83 per cent of the rayon produced today is manufactured by the viscose process while only about 4 per cent is produced by the nitro process. It is interesting to note that there is only one plant in this country producing nitro rayon. The location of this plant is a t Hopewell, Virginia.
Southern Plants In 1917 the Viscose Corporation built the first unit of their Roanoke, Virginia, plant. This plant has grown steadily ever since and is rated a t the present time as the largest single plant in the world. It has an estimated capacity of about 20,000,000 pounds annually and employs about GOO0 people. The Tubize Artificial Silk Corporation of America built its plant a t Hopewell, Virginia, in 1921. This company uses the nitro process for the production of rayon. It employs about 3500 people and has an annual capacity of about 12,000,000 pounds. About 1926 the industry became very active and has shown remarkable expansion since that time. The American Bemberg Corporation a t Elizabethton, Tennessee, using the cuprammonium process, started production in 1927, and that same year work was started on the plant of the American Glanzstoff Corporation. This plant is located close to the American Bemberg plant and uses the viscose p"rocess. The next year the du Pont Rayon Company completed the third unit of their first southern plant a t Old Hickory, Tennessee. Last year seems to have been the banner year for this industry as
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there were no less than six new plants that began production during 1929. These were the du Pont Company's plants a t Waynesboro and Richmond, Virginia, the Industrial Rayon Company's plant a t Covington, Virginia, the plant of the American Chatillon Company at Rome, Georgia, the A. M. Johnson Rayon Mills at Burlington, North Carolina, and the American Enka Company's plant a t Asheville, North Carolina.
Production The world production for 1930 is estimated a t 462,500,000 pounds. Of this amount the United States, the largest single manufacturer, will produce about 35 per cent, or 162,350,000 pounds. In Table I is shown the comparative growth in the production of rayon in the United States since 1926. TABLE 1 Production of Rayon in Million Pounds Ymr
Unilcd SIolsl
World
1926 1927 1928
62,575 75,050 98.650
219,080 266.868 347.400
* Estimated. TABLE I1 Estimated Production for 1930 in Million Pounds P, r n l of U.S. 9radrrclion
44.50 27.50 6.20 5.50
Virginia Tennessee Georgia North Carolina
27.50 16.90 3.80 3.38
Per Ccnl of u*0,ld Plod%liol
9.60 5.94 1.34 1.09
TABLE 111 Cornpony
Viscose du Pont
Tubize-Chatillon Industrial Bemberg Glanzstaff Enka A. M. Johnson
Plant localion
Roanoke, Va. Old Hickory, Tenn. Richmond, Va. Waynesboro, Va. Hopewell, Va.
Rome. Ga. Covington, Va. Elizabethton, Tenn. Elizabethton, Tenn. Asheville, N. C. Burlington. N. C.
Procesx
Viscose Viscose Viscose Acetate
he Acetate Viscose Cupra Viscose Viscose Viscose
Errimorcd caPocily in million 9oundr
20.00 15.50 4.00 2.50 12.00 4.30 2.50 6.00 4.00 8.00 4.50 14.40
Planned
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Table I1 shows the amount of the United States output which will be produced by the four southern states according to the 1930 estimates. Since 1917 the industry in the South has developed to a production basis of 51.58 per cent of the total United States production and 17.97 per cent of the world production. The locations of the plants, processes, and capacities are given in Table 111. I t is of interest to note that about 60 per cent of the United States capacity is under foreign control. Reasons for Location
It is interesting to analyze the growth of the rayon industry in the South and to determine the various factors which are at work. Possibly one of the greatest influences has been the southern movement of the textile industry in general. Southern mills are now supplying more than 62 per cent of the annual production of cotton goods. These mills are for the most part of the latest modern construction and many of them rank among the largest in their respective branches. The total investment mounts up to over one billion dollars. During 1929 new mills, new units, enlargements, and improvements in the whole textile industry of the South were as follows: North Carolina and South Carolina, 87 each; Georgia, 26; Alabama, 21; Tennessee, 21; Viginia, 18; Mississippi and Texas, 3 each; Arkansas, 1. The demand for rayon by the southern mills has constantly increased and while the increase in rayon production has been going steadily forward, the consumption is still some distance ahead as shown by the fact that 16,000,000 pounds of rayon were imported into this country in 1929. The close connection between the manufacture of rayon and the older textile industry can be realized by a consideration of some of the woven and knitted fabrics. At first rayon was used as a substitute for silk. Whiie rayon, unless delusterized, has a higher luster than silk, it generally lacks the elasticity and strength of the latter, especially when wet. This fact is probably the chief disadvantage of rayon, as great care must be taken not to injure it while wet. When dry it regains its strength. It found a place first in the hosiery industry and then was taken up by the manufacturers of underwear. From that it gradually spread into other branches of the textile industry, at first being used principally for decorative purposes, then for its own intrinsic value. At the present time rayon is being used alone and in combination with cotton, silk, linen, and wool for the production of all types of knitted and woven fabrics. Like silk, rayon can be weighted, but the incentive to weight rayon is lacking as it is not as expensive as silk.
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In the production of rayon vast amounts of other chemicals are consumed. Cotton linters were used exclusively at first but gradually gave way, to some extent, to a special high-grade sulfite wood pulp. Whiie the amount of cotton linters consumed by the industry still amounts to about 33,000 tons annually, about twice that amount of wood pulp is being used. The amounts of sulfuric acid (50" Be) and caustic soda are 145,000 and 105,000 tons, respectively. This gives an idea of the necessary development of other chemical industries to keep pace with the expansion going on in the rayon industry. Together with the tremendous growth of the southern market for rayon textiles bas gone a corresponding growth in the necessary industries for raw materials. All necessary materials. are produced in close proximity to the new rayon plants. In the South there seems to be abundant labor available with almost none of the radical type. In an industry which is constantly changing and developing as rapidly as this one, labor is an important consideration, especially at the beginning. The great network of railway systems which covers this section places all the important cities within easy reach of the factories and thus facilitates the movements of raw materials and products.
Future Whiie the consumption of rayon has increased until it would seem as though the limit must be reached, new uses more than absorb the yearly increase in production. Even last year the imports were greater than they were in 1928 by 4,000,000 pounds. The American Glanzstoff Corporation is a t work on the coustmction of a second unit to its plant which will double its present capacity. The American Enka Corporation, although only starting commercial production during the latter part of 1929, owns a site near Knoxville, Tennessee, which will allow plenty of room for expansion. The Tubize-Chatillon Corporation plans to increase its capacity for acetate fiber by about 2,250,000 pounds. I t is also expected that before long the du Pont Company will construct another plant in this section. When these plants are completed, the South will be producing considerably more than 53 per cent of the rayon made in the United States, and, owing to its very favorable climatic, economic, and social conditions. can look forward to an almost unlimited growth in this important industry and its allies.
