Fabric made from artificial fibres.
© Science Museum / Science & Society Picture Library
Detail of a piece of fabric made from artificial fibres, with a printed yellow and brown flower and leaf design. Viscose rayon is a regenerated cellulose and due to the obtained solution being yellow and rather viscous it was known as 'Viscose'. Viscose rayon was produced by Englishmen Charles F Cros and Edward J Bevan and patented by Cros, Bevan and Clayton Beadle in 1892 with the British patents taken over by Courtaulds in 1904.