1856-1921, Analytical Chemist Edward John Bevan was born on the 11th December 1856 at 8 Argyle Street, Birkenhead, Cheshire. After attending private schools he became a laboratory assistant at the Runcorn Soap and Alkali Company. He was advised to continue his education and went to Owens College, Manchester, between 1877 and 1879. He then worked for three years for Alexander Cowan & Co. at Musselburgh Paper Mills. At Owens College he had met Charles Frederick Cross and the two chemists joined forces at the Jodrell Laboratory, Kew Gardens, with the aim of exploring the chemistry of cellulose. They went into partnership as analytical chemists at Lincoln's Inn in 1885. Bevan was appointed public analyst for Middlesex county council in 1892. He was president of the Society of Public Analysts in 1905–6, and vice-president of the Institute of Chemistry in 1905–8 and 1914–17. The interest of Cross and Bevan in the chemistry of cellulose led them to a key patent in May 1892, with their colleague Clayton Beadle (1868–1917). The three partners set up the Viscose Syndicate in 1893, with the aim of producing adhesives, films, coatings for natural fibres, and mouldings, and British Viscoid Ltd followed in 1896. In May 1894 Cross and Bevan patented the manufacture of cellulose acetate, which was later developed and sold as a fibre by the British Celanese Company, in competition with viscose rayon. He died, unmarried, at 18 Dorset Square, Marylebone, London, on 17 October 1921.

Cross & Bevan was a partnership between Charles Frederick Cross (1855 – 1935) and Edward John Bevan (1856 – 1921). They went into partnership in 1885 and set up as analytical and consulting chemists in New Court, Lincoln’s Inn in London. In 1888 they published what was to become a standard work on papermaking. In 1892, together with another partner, Clayton Beadle (who was also an authority on papermaking) they took out a patent for ‘viscose’ which became the basis for the viscose rayon and cellophane industries. In 1894 Cross and Bevan took out a patent for the manufacture of cellulose acetate – this was to become the industrial process for its manufacture. They removed the related plant materials that occur in combination with cellulose by dissolving them in a concentrated sodium hydroxide solution. They designated the undissolved residue as α-cellulose. The soluble materials (designated as β-cellulose and γ-cellulose) were later shown not to be celluloses, but rather, relatively simple sugars and other carbohydrates. The α-cellulose of Cross and Bevan is what is usually meant when the term "cellulose" is used now.

(1855-1935) Analytical Chemist Charles Frederick Cross was born on the 11th December 1855 at Brentford, Middlesex. He was educated at King's College, London where he graduated BSc in 1878 and spent some time at Zürich university and polytechnic and Owens College, Manchester. After early work on jute fibre in Barrow in Furness and Kew, in 1885 he set up in business in Lincoln's Inn in partnership with Edward J. Bevan, his fellow student at Manchester, as analytical and consulting chemists. In 1892 Cross discovered viscose, which made the manufacture of artificial silk, afterwards called rayon, and also used for the manufacture of photographic film, possible. Initially, his interest in the fibre was not as a new textile but as a basis for the fine filaments needed for the newly developed electric lamp. Cross's patent remained a chemical master patent for its full term of years and was extended for a further term in view of its outstanding merit. It was soon worked throughout the world, and over the years 1893–1900 his process was developed through proprietary companies in London, Breslau, and Paris. With C. H. Stearn he founded the Viscose Spinning Syndicate, which developed the spinning of artificial silk. This was later acquired by Courtaulds. Cross was also a pioneer in the production of transparent viscose films (cellophane), used in huge quantities by the packaging industry. Cross was actively interested in the theoretical and practical chemistry of Cellulose. When he began his research its chemical identity was obscure: by the 1920s his work had contributed largely to elucidating the basic features of its structure. He published his researches in book form as well as in contributions to scientific journals. His book Cellulose (written in collaboration with Bevan, 1895) is unique, full of imagination and stimulating ideas. He also published four volumes of Researches on Cellulose (1901–22), the first three in collaboration with Bevan, the last with Charles Dorée. Cross was elected FRS in 1917, awarded the medal of the Society of Chemical Industry in 1916, the research medal of the Dyers' Company in 1918 and the Perkin medal of the Society of Dyers and Colourists in 1924. He married Edith Vernon in 1890; they had two sons and one daughter. He died at his home, 4C King's Gardens, Hove, Sussex, on 15 April 1935.