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Tributes are paid to chemist Ruth Benerito

Tributes are paid to chemist Ruth Benerito

THE chemist Ruth Benerito, who was behind the development of wrinkle-free cotton, has passed away at the age of 97.

Her breakthrough is not only regarded as being one of the most significant technological developments of the 20th. Century but is also credited with helping to save the cotton industry.

In the 1950s when Dr. Benerito began researching ways of making cotton a more user-friendly fabric, the cotton industry was struggling to cope with competition from man-made materials which were easier for consumers to look after. 

While a mixture of cotton and synthetic fibres had already been developed, Dr. Benerito began to concentrate her efforts on developing a pure cotton which did not wrinkle.

The reason cotton always wrinkled was because as a cellulose fibre its long strands of glucose molecules were held together by weak hydrogen bonds which were easily broken in the washing process. 

Dr. Benerito and her colleagues, working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, developed a cross-linking process which replaced the weak hydrogen bonds with stronger ones which meant that when the cotton was washed  it kept its smooth shape.

The cross-linking process, which was developed by Dr. Benerito, also paved the way for stain-resistant and flame-retardant cotton to be developed.

Dr. Benerito went on to hold more than 50 patents, not all of which related to her work with cotton.

After her time with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, she went on to teach at the University of New Orleans, remaining a member of the faculty until she was 81.

Over the years, Dr. Benerito received a number of awards for her work, including the 2002 Lemelson-MIT Award for Invention and Innovation (see below). She was inducted into the National Inventors’ Hall of Fame in 2008.

To view an interview given by Dr. Benerito after receiving the 2002 Lemelson-MIT Award for Invention and Innovation, click here.

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