Edwin, inventor of nylon stockings, lived in Paignton until his death at age 107

Significant people who lived with in Torbay in the 20th century, not always famous, by Ian Handford, president of Torbay Civic Society. This week, Edwin John Beer:

Edwin John Beer, the chemist, geologist, mineralogist, archeologist, historian and librarian, invented the first man-made fibre, later known as viscose rayon.

Born at Hounslow in February, 1879, before being educated at St Dunstans Catford and St Pauls Westminster, Edwin started his career in the London Public Analysts office.

Later, he joined Finlays before moving to the East India Merchant Shipping Company where his interest in cellulose was truly fired.

Edwin knew cellulose stiffened gentlemen’s shirts and cuffs and yet his adaption reads like a H G Wells story.

Before becoming part of the team researching viscose, he recorded for us: “At the time it was still indecent to even suggest that 'ladies' in polite society even had legs and the sight of a female ankle, without nylons of rayon, was quite thrilling.”

It was while at Kew Laboratories he helped create the world's first artificial Viscose Rayon suitable to be spun, so at last silk stockings became possible.

Viscose was originally discovered in 1884 but men like Weston, Wynne, Powell, Swan, Stearn and Robertson were unable to find a way to spin the new substance. Edwin found that answer and thus created a new thread for the rag trade which could be weaved for numerous unstable products.

His product would be patented although by then Edwin had moved on and received no royalties.

Edwin's experiments had involved wood pulp and substances containing alpha or alkali cellulose before a by product suitable for electric arcs and other substances led to carborundum. He discovered decaying forests would breakdown the C6/H10/05 to form hydrolised celluloses and 'even leaves if left long enough in the ground automatically decayed'.

Now he was commissioned to go to Seaton, Devon, specially to photograph the Keuper/Cretaceous fault and its landslip - oddly at Beer.

This trip heightened his desire for more travel as laboratory work was now seen as boring. He travelled to India courtesy of the General Prospecting Syndicate while at home colleagues cashed-in on that first invention and, in America, others made fortunes.

Meanwhile, Edwin had found deposits of iron ore and other minerals in India and made a fortune himself until having taken bad financial advice, he lost the lot. But then he observed buildings in Karachi and Bombay were generally unstable after heavy rain as kalar or salt had been used in construction.

It was a problem demanding a solution and he found it - cheap cement.

His lifelong interest in mineralogy now created a second fortune as having discovered the limestone at Simla, Fagu, Shandon and finally in Calcutta, Edwin was heralded as the most famous scientist/geologist of his era.

Now he married Margaret Finney in 1922 and they returned to India having joined Jenson and Nicholas, a painting manufacturer.

Somehow the couple managed a four-year honeymoon before eventually Edwin fulfilled another task this time for BBC Radio high up on the slopes of Lakhiri in the Thar Desert.

Portland-type limestone became invaluable to the British military, who eventually built a railway from Rawalpindi to Campbellpore.

Yet when Margaret was lost to tuberculosis, Edwin returned to Beer in Devon and never worked again.

Having moved to Plymouth, he then walked the whole county before discovering Shorton House in Preston, Paignton. He wrote later: “I had been waiting for a good walk for ages and that was exactly what I did."

Now having been accepted as the 'most senior of the Senior Fellows of the Geological Society in London', he finally delivered 150 lectures in the capital city, although being resident in Torbay. Edwin also joined the Torquay Natural History Society and, by 1928, was in charge of their geological archive.

He finally married his second wife Phoebe and she blessed him with two sons, Michael and Lionel, and this amazing scientist lived until 107 - the oldest man in Devon at the time.

He died peacefully at his Shorton Road home on October 20, 1986.

A copy of an article on Edwin Beer is available by sending two second class stamps and a small stamped addressed envelope to Torbay Civic Society, Suite 4, 1 Palace Avenue, Paignton TQ3 3HA

Ian's comment: Edwin's son Lionel was a member of Torbay Civic Society before moving to outer London some years ago.

Next week: Winston G Edmonds