[5] The Dreyfus brothers began experimenting in a small laboratory in a corner of the garden of their father's house in Basel.

[4] In 1908 they turned to developing cellulose acetate, including scientific investigation of the properties of the compound and commercial exploitation.

[10] The British Cellulose and Chemical Manufacturing company was established to operate the factory with 160,000 shares, of which the Dreyfus brothers and Alexander Clavel received 79,998, the Prudential Trust of Canada 40,470, Vickers Ltd. 19,800 and the remainder to smaller investors.

[6] Camille Dreyfus had left in February 1918 to set up an American operation, later to become the Celanese Corporation, and did not return until July 1919.

[14] The two brothers moved into new cellulose-based products including varnishes, paints and an artificial silk yarn that they called celanese.

[10] Spondon had the capacity to make about 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of acetate filament daily when Henri launched the product under the "celanese" brand in 1921.

[10] The company repeatedly forecast large profits, but did not pay any dividends on its common shares until 1944, when Drayfus died.

Although they were technically independent public companies, in practice the two were both controlled by the Dreyfus brothers, who treated them as parent and subsidiary.

[17] Henri Dreyfus was effective in promoting his company's products in competition with other artificial fiber manufacturers, notably Courtaulds.

[19] However, a lack of practical materials that could contain the corrosive reaction mixture at the high pressures needed (200 atm or more) discouraged commercialization.

[20] British Celanese sued Courtaulds for infringement of acetate patents in 1931, then filed a series of appeals that eventually reached the House of Lords, which rejected the claim.