Polyhydromethalon

Polyhydromethalon is a cotton-like synthetic fibre created by the French chemist Dr Leon Dupuis in the 1930’s. It was a commercial failure due to its lack of durability.

History

The Great Depression of the 1930’s exposed some inherent weaknesses in the French economy. The fractious nature of politics in the French Third Republic exacerbated the country’s economic difficulties and precipitated a sustained flight of capital that left France struggling to finance the importation of many basic commodities, not least raw cotton.

Concerned by the shortage of cotton and a general desire to see France become less dependant upon foreign produced commodities, Dr Leon Dupuis, the technical director of the Rhône-Poulenc chemical company assembled a team consisting of chemists and experts in material science, and he gave them the task of creating an affordable synthetic substitute for cotton. Work began in 1935 and by 1937 a viable compound had been created.

Although France’s economic situation had improved by the late 1930’s, few commercial enterprises were prepared to invest in new plant and machinery required for the manufacturer of Polyhydromethalon garments. Furthermore, Rhône-Poulenc were frustrated at the slow pace and high cost of Dr Dupuis’ work, and in November 1937 the company dismissed the doctor and his team. The future for the new fibre looked bleak.

Édouard Daladier

However, support for Dr Dupuis and his team came when Édouard Daladier became Prime Minister of the Third Republic in April 1938. Daladier, although a radical socialist with little time for maverick entrepreneurs, was keen to promote French technical achievements. Playing upon Daladier’s scientific chauvinism, Dr Dupuis lobbied the government for a loan that would enable him to build a small experimental manufacturing facility.

During his discussions with representatives of the French government, Dr Dupuis discovered that Daladier suffered from a cotton allergy, and had forsaken cotton shirts in favour of pure silk. Dr Dupuis calculated that whilst silk might be good for the Prime Minster’s skin, it was a luxury too far for a socialist politician, and through a mixture of subtle threats to expose Daladier as a silk-wearing dandy, together with the promise of a patriotic solution to his skin problem, Dr Dupuis was given a substantial government loan on generous terms.

The first batches of garments that Dr Dupuis produced at his new facility were men’s shirts, half a dozen of which he gave ‘’gratis’’ to Monsieur Daladier. The Prime Minister was initially very pleased with the shirts and wrote an effusive public letter to Dr Dupuis, published in Le Temps, extolling the virtues of the shirts and the boldness of French technology.

Munich

Triumph turned to tragedy. At the end of September 1938, Daladier travelled to Munich to discuss the future of Czechoslovakia with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Italian leader Benito Mussolini and Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. The Munich Agreement as it would be later called signed away the disputed Sudetenland to Germany, effectively disembering the state of Czechoslovakia. Daladier attended the signing ceremony wearing one of Dupuis’ new shirts. Unfortunately, as he began to sign the document, the right cuff of his shirt came away and flopped onto the page causing his signature to smudge Daladier calmly removed the cuff, placed it in his jacket pocket and proceeded to re-sign the agreement. Daladier was of course furious at being subjected to the embarrasment of having his clothes fall apart in front of Europe’s leaders.

Upon his return to France, Daladier recalled the loan made to Dr Dupuis, who in turn was forced to sell his new facility. Ironically, the only buyer Dupuis could find for his facility was Rhône-Poulenc; the company then went on to develop its own, successful types of synthetic fibres. It was a further irony that when the Nazis occupied France they requisitioned and expanded Dr Dupuis’ facility to provide synthetic materials for the German war effort.

Dr Dupuis for his part was devastated by the failure of Polyhydromethalon. Subsequent to the fiasco at Munich, he discovered that Polyhydromethalon simply could not withstand the detergents of the day, and that any garment made from the fibre would become useless after only a couple of washes.

Polyhydromethalon has not been manufactured by any company or institution since 1938.

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