Carbon fiber originated as the light source for incandescent light bulbs. Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914), a British chemist and physicist, invented the incandescent bulb using platinum wire as the light source. To solve the problem of platinum wire's heat resistance, Swan used carbonized paper strips instead. Since carbonized paper strips are easily combustible in air, Swan essentially solved this problem by creating a vacuum in the bulb. In 1860, Swan invented a semi-vacuum lamp using carbonized paper strips as the light source, the prototype of the incandescent bulb. However, vacuum technology was not mature at the time, so the lamp's lifespan was short. By the late 1870s, vacuum technology had matured, and Swan invented a more practical incandescent bulb, obtaining a patent in 1878.
The emergence of man-made fibers and chemical fibers ushered in an era of "reinvention" for carbon fiber technology. The emergence of man-made fibers such as viscose (1905) and acetate (1914) in the early 20th century, and especially the commercialization of chemical fibers such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) (1931), polyamide (1936), and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) (1950) in the mid-20th century, provided the foundation for basic scientific research in high-performance carbon fiber technology in the United States.
China's focus on and exploration of carbon fiber began relatively early. In the early 1960s, the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry had already begun research on PAN-based carbon fibers. During this period, Akio Shindo of Japan invented a method for producing carbon fibers using polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers as raw materials and obtained a patent. In 1963, Nippon Carbon Co., Ltd. and Tokai Electrode Co., Ltd. used Shindo's patent to develop polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fibers.
