The development of rayon at Kew.

In 1892 Charles Cross and Edward Bevan, of the Jodrell Laboratory Kew Gardens, discovered a substance made from cellulose which they called 'viscose'. With Charles Stearne, an electric lighting pioneer, Cross set up the Viscose Spinning Syndicate in Station Ave, Kew. Fred Topham, a glassbower and an employee of the company, designed a box which enabled the new material to be spun into a fine, silk-like thread.

(This item is on long-term loan from the Science Museum.)