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Landmark designation
The American Chemical Society designated the development of high performance carbon fibers at Union Carbide in Parma, Ohio, as a National Historic Chemical Landmark on September 17, 2003. The plaque commemorating the event reads:
Scientists at the Parma Technical Center of Union Carbide Corporation (now GrafTech International) performed pioneering research on carbon fibers, for their weight the strongest and stiffest material known at the present time. In 1958 Roger Bacon demonstrated the ultrahigh strength of graphite in a filamentary form. Seven years later continuously processed high performance carbon yarn, from a rayon precursor, was commercialized. In 1970 Leonard Singer produced truly graphitic fibers, leading to the commercialization of carbon yarn derived from liquid crystalline pitch. Carbon fibers are used in aerospace and sports applications.
The first carbon fibers | Bacon’s breakthrough | Flexible fibers from rayon | Polyacrylonitrile: a concurrent development | Singer’s taffy pull | Carbon fibers today | Landmark designation | Acknowledgments
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