Olden Life: What was Ardil? Alan Thomas

Were you, in the 1950s, the proud owner of a cracking pair of trousers – cracking in the literal sense, that is? If so, then it’s highly likely you would have been wearing a garment made from the latest ‘wonder fibre’ – Ardil. But what was Ardil?

Ardil was derived from monkey nuts – common peanuts. In 1937, ICI patented a method of making a fibre from peanuts that had similar characteristics to wool. When mixed with wool, it was thought suitable for clothing, blankets and carpets, being hard-wearing, non-flammable and biodegradable.

Production of the fibre didn’t start until 1951. ICI converted an ex-ministry of Supply explosives plant near Dumfries, and invested £2.1 million in the project, a huge sum at the time.

One of the main attributes of the fibre was its similarity to wool, being resilient, soft and warm to the touch. It didn’t crease like cellulose fibres and it was mothproof.

The sheer novelty of creating clothing from peanuts captured the attention of the media, and the project received worldwide publicity. It generated excitement among clothing manufacturers, who at that time were experiencing huge increases in the price of wool; and it was also enthusiastically embraced by major clothing retailers, who took it on board as another new, manmade material with great potential.

There was a cheap and constant availability of the feedstock (peanuts) from long-established growers of groundnuts in what had been the British Empire. It was also about this time that huge supplies were being anticipated from the much-hyped groundnuts scheme in Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Nutty idea: an advertisement for Ardil

The first supplies left ICI in 1951 for onward transmission to eagerly waiting textile processors, anxious to be among the early producers of material made from this ‘wonder fibre’. Once in the hands of enterprising clothing manufacturers, it was all systems go to get garments of this revolutionary versatile material on the market as soon as possible. A marketing slogan had been coined – ‘Happy Families Wear Ardil’ – which was used in a nationwide advertising campaign, accompanied by an illustration of a smiling family group, adorned in Ardil clothing.

The general public took to the fibre with open arms and the manufacturers could be forgiven for thinking they had brought a much-needed new dawn to the textile industries of the world.

Early sales of finished goods were most encouraging, but in no time at all there were murmurings that all was not well. Some knitted garments shrank to half their original size after being washed in a washing machine. The wearing qualities of suits were falling well below expectations. Worst of all were the increasing number of complaints where the material was cracking – reminiscent of monkey-nut shells.

Problems on the supply side soon arose, principally with the nonavailability of sufficient nuts, the government groundnuts venture in Tanganyika having failed spectacularly. Yet another blow was the unexpected collapse in the price of wool, the earlier high price of which had propelled Ardil on to the market.

ICI realised Ardil was not as good as they had hoped. In 1957, they reluctantly ceased producing this once-promising fibre. The whole scheme, it turned out, was simply nuts.