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In Memory

Masao Horio 1905-1996 Horio Symposium On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Masao Horio, the founder of modern fiber science in Japan (1905–1996), we will be holding the Horio Symposium at Kyoto (Kyodai-Kaikan) on July 9, 2005. Taking this opportunity we will, from the historical viewpoint of science and technology, look back and re-evaluate his contributions in establishing the modern man-made fiber science and in developing new productive processes for viscose rayon and chemical pulp, which were the main industries in Japan in those days. As a collaborator of Professor Horio, I am honored to announce this symposium in this Journal in which he had published his main important research works. Masao Horio graduated from Kyoto Imperial University, Department of Industrial Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering in 1928, and he received his doctoral degree on photochemistry in 1934. He then joined the KurashikiKensyoku Company where he worked for 3 years. His academic career started in 1938, when he was appointed Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto Imperial University. In 1941 he was appointed Professor and served for 30 years until his obligatory retirement. He held a number of key positions such as the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto University and the Director of the Institute for Chemical Research, attached to Kyoto University. After his retirement he worked as a leader in the science community, and served as President of the Chemical Society of Japan, President of the Society of Fiber Science and Technology, Japan, President of the Society of Rheology, Japan, etc. As a result of his Textile Res. J. 75(5), 375–376 (2005) DOI: 10.1177/0040517505055134

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extensive contribution to higher education, science and industry, he received several national prizes. Professor Gen-itsu Kita, Horio’s teacher, founded the basis of the Department of Industrial Chemistry. Kita advocated an extraordinary idea for the prosperity of the Department of Industrial Chemistry, which emphasized the importance of mastering basic science as well as of introducing a pilot plant in applied science. Professor Kita handed over to Professor Horio two research projects on viscose rayon and chemical pulp, and Horio then pursued research on viscose rayon in collaboration with Keinosuke Kobayashi and Takashi Kondo and on chemical pulp with Yusaku Fukuda. The viscose rayon industry in Japan started in 1913 after Europe and became the greatest producer in the world after 25 years. After severe damage in World War II, the industry made a quick recovery. Horio’s distinguished papers on the stretch spinning process with two baths presented in 1939 and 1943 played a definitive role in solving two important technical problems in the viscose rayon industry at that time: one was the remarkable enhancement of rayon tenacity, especially in a wet condition and the other was the breakthrough in how to give wool-like crimping to the rayon fibers. Soon afterwards this result was applied by Takehiko Suda in the Kita group to establish the condition for producing crimped fibers, then followed by a success in mass production of crimped fibers, attained by the enterprise. Horio published several important papers on viscose rayon and wool in the Textile Research Journal (1947, 1953) concerning the coagulation mechanism of viscose rayon, skin-formation mechanism during the spinning, and crimping mechanism of viscose rayon and wool: In particular, the work with Takashi Kondo on the finding of bilateral structure of wool won a high reputation. In the field of chemical pulp in the 1940s, the sulfite pulp process from softwoods was usual in Japan, but an abundant resource of hardwoods had not been utilized for producing pulps. Horio in collaboration with Fukuda invented a new method of two-stage prehydrolysis kraft cooking which could be applied to hardwoods as well as softwoods and they succeeded in producing a bleached dissolving kraft pulp even from hardwoods in 1944. Professor Horio had many close friends in the field of man-made fibers and polymer science throughout the world, among them Professor Herman Mark of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. A well-known episode is Professor Mark’s presentation in 1962 to the Showa Emperor of the experiment of continuous spinning of nylon filaments with interfacial polymerization, which was planned and arranged with great endeavor by Professor Horio. HIROSHI INAGAKI Emeritus Professor of Kyoto University