In 1913, German inventor Friedrich Heinrich August Klatte took out a patent on PVC. His method used polymerization of vinyl chloride with sunlight.
The most significant breakthrough occurred in the United States when the company BFGoodrich hired the industrial scientist Waldo Semon to develop a synthetic replacement for the increasingly costly natural rubber. His experiments again produced polyvinyl chloride. However, the material was threatened by the recession in the 1920s and it was under threat of abandonment that Semon conceived the idea of PVC as a water resistant coating for fabrics. Sales took off quickly with a rapidly expanding product range. Demand accelerated again during the Second World War, when PVC quickly replaced traditional material to insulate wiring on military ships.