Posted on Oct 27, 2019
October 27, 1938: DuPont announces nylon as new synthetic fibre
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On October 27, 1938, DuPont announced its new synthetic polyamide fiber called "nylon". From the article:
"October 27, 1938: DuPont announces nylon as new synthetic fibre
Last updated: 17 October 2018 - 12.19pm
Nylon may have been patented in 1935 but it wasn’t until this day in 1938 that the innovative polymer was introduced to the public in New York.
In simple terms, nylon is a versatile plastic which can be used to make any number of everyday objects, as well as being fashioned into fibre form to make fabric. We use the term nylon to talk about what is in fact a group of synthetic polymers (large molecules with repeating chemical structures), all in the nylon family. The first of these – nylon 6,6 - was developed by chemist Wallace Carothers working for DuPont in 1935. Different forms of nylon have different practical applications.
Nylon 6,6 was made by reacting two different petroleum-derived chemicals, hexamethylenediamine and adipic acid, in the process of condensation polymerisation (so called because the process gives off water).
It was patented in 1938 and the first commercial product to use nylon came on the market in February of that year in the form of Dr West’s Miracle-Tuft – a toothbrush with nylon bristles. However, the synthetic fibre used was not called nylon, but Exton.
After its initial use in toothbrushes, nylon was officially introduced to the public on October 27, 1938 at the site of the future 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York. 3,000 members of the Women’s Club were the audience for a talk called ‘We Enter the World of Tomorrow’.
October 27, 1938: DuPont unveils a new synthetic fibre - nylon
Women were, indeed, a key market for nylon products. Soon after it entered mass production, the revolutionary fibre would be seen as a replacement for costly silk in stockings – and the term ‘nylons’ would become synonymous with stockings.
During World War II production switched to focus on defence products including parachutes, but nylon soon became one of DuPont’s most successful, profitable products. Just eight days after Japan surrendered in 1945, DuPont announced that its factories would return to making nylon stockings, but demand far exceeded supply and production delays led to riots in US stores as women fought over the few pairs of nylons that had reached the shelves.
Why is nylon called nylon?
Many believe that the name is an amalgamation of New York (NY) and London (Lon), but this is in fact incorrect.
The Oxford Dictionary notes that nylon is an “invented word, on the pattern of cotton or rayon”. This was, indeed, the rationale DuPont themselves gave in 1940. However, in 1978, the company said that the polymer was originally intended to be called Nuron, spelling “no-run” backwards i.e. no breaking or unravelling. However, there were trademark conflicts with the name, so it was changed letter by letter until they came up with the agreeable – and memorable – nylon.
Nylon – did you know?
Wallace Carothers, the inventor of nylon, also worked on the synthesis of neoprene – better known now as wetsuit material.
Despite being the godfather of some of the most widely used materials of all time, Carothers was often depressed and killed himself in 1937 – a year before nylon’s public launch.
Nylon wasn’t a one-off for DuPont either. The company is also behind innovative materials Teflon (in everyday life most common as a non-stick coating), Mylar (used in packaging, insulation and aerospace), Kevlar (best known for bullet and stab-proofing applications) and Lycra (that staple of activewear) amongst others.
Nylon fibres are made when chips of nylon are melted down and passed through a special machine called a spinneret which forms it into fibres.
DuPont chose not to trademark ‘nylon’, rather choosing for the term to be forever synonymous with stockings and enter the common parlance in that way.
Early adverts for nylon lauded the substance’s properties: “The manufacturers of these products use nylon because nylon products can have these outstanding properties: strength, lightness, elasticity, toughness, long wear, easy washing, fast drying, flame resistance, resistance to moths and perspiration, can be ‘set’ to hold shape.”
Nylon’s initial reception was not all positive. Early on, some newspapers reported that one of the compounds used to create nylon was cadaverine – obtained from human corpses. This was not true. Whilst cadaverine could be used in nylon production, it was derived from coal. Other reports blamed nylon “for rashes, poisonings and skin cancer” according to the book American Plastic by Jeffrey L. Meikle. However, whilst there were allergic reactions to some dyes used in early nylon stocking production, most of these rumours seem to have been based on a fear of the new and synthetic."
On October 27, 1938, DuPont announced its new synthetic polyamide fiber called "nylon". From the article:
"October 27, 1938: DuPont announces nylon as new synthetic fibre
Last updated: 17 October 2018 - 12.19pm
Nylon may have been patented in 1935 but it wasn’t until this day in 1938 that the innovative polymer was introduced to the public in New York.
In simple terms, nylon is a versatile plastic which can be used to make any number of everyday objects, as well as being fashioned into fibre form to make fabric. We use the term nylon to talk about what is in fact a group of synthetic polymers (large molecules with repeating chemical structures), all in the nylon family. The first of these – nylon 6,6 - was developed by chemist Wallace Carothers working for DuPont in 1935. Different forms of nylon have different practical applications.
Nylon 6,6 was made by reacting two different petroleum-derived chemicals, hexamethylenediamine and adipic acid, in the process of condensation polymerisation (so called because the process gives off water).
It was patented in 1938 and the first commercial product to use nylon came on the market in February of that year in the form of Dr West’s Miracle-Tuft – a toothbrush with nylon bristles. However, the synthetic fibre used was not called nylon, but Exton.
After its initial use in toothbrushes, nylon was officially introduced to the public on October 27, 1938 at the site of the future 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York. 3,000 members of the Women’s Club were the audience for a talk called ‘We Enter the World of Tomorrow’.
October 27, 1938: DuPont unveils a new synthetic fibre - nylon
Women were, indeed, a key market for nylon products. Soon after it entered mass production, the revolutionary fibre would be seen as a replacement for costly silk in stockings – and the term ‘nylons’ would become synonymous with stockings.
During World War II production switched to focus on defence products including parachutes, but nylon soon became one of DuPont’s most successful, profitable products. Just eight days after Japan surrendered in 1945, DuPont announced that its factories would return to making nylon stockings, but demand far exceeded supply and production delays led to riots in US stores as women fought over the few pairs of nylons that had reached the shelves.
Why is nylon called nylon?
Many believe that the name is an amalgamation of New York (NY) and London (Lon), but this is in fact incorrect.
The Oxford Dictionary notes that nylon is an “invented word, on the pattern of cotton or rayon”. This was, indeed, the rationale DuPont themselves gave in 1940. However, in 1978, the company said that the polymer was originally intended to be called Nuron, spelling “no-run” backwards i.e. no breaking or unravelling. However, there were trademark conflicts with the name, so it was changed letter by letter until they came up with the agreeable – and memorable – nylon.
Nylon – did you know?
Wallace Carothers, the inventor of nylon, also worked on the synthesis of neoprene – better known now as wetsuit material.
Despite being the godfather of some of the most widely used materials of all time, Carothers was often depressed and killed himself in 1937 – a year before nylon’s public launch.
Nylon wasn’t a one-off for DuPont either. The company is also behind innovative materials Teflon (in everyday life most common as a non-stick coating), Mylar (used in packaging, insulation and aerospace), Kevlar (best known for bullet and stab-proofing applications) and Lycra (that staple of activewear) amongst others.
Nylon fibres are made when chips of nylon are melted down and passed through a special machine called a spinneret which forms it into fibres.
DuPont chose not to trademark ‘nylon’, rather choosing for the term to be forever synonymous with stockings and enter the common parlance in that way.
Early adverts for nylon lauded the substance’s properties: “The manufacturers of these products use nylon because nylon products can have these outstanding properties: strength, lightness, elasticity, toughness, long wear, easy washing, fast drying, flame resistance, resistance to moths and perspiration, can be ‘set’ to hold shape.”
Nylon’s initial reception was not all positive. Early on, some newspapers reported that one of the compounds used to create nylon was cadaverine – obtained from human corpses. This was not true. Whilst cadaverine could be used in nylon production, it was derived from coal. Other reports blamed nylon “for rashes, poisonings and skin cancer” according to the book American Plastic by Jeffrey L. Meikle. However, whilst there were allergic reactions to some dyes used in early nylon stocking production, most of these rumours seem to have been based on a fear of the new and synthetic."
October 27, 1938: DuPont announces nylon as new synthetic fibre
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World History
American History
Plastics
Chemicals
Posted 5 y ago
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1SG Steven Imerman
Cost and durability. You just had to look at silk stockings and they would run, according to my grandmother. They would never risk their precious stockings at a dance, but to look like they were wearing them, they would draw lines down the back of their legs with a pen. Grandma said she had the steadiest hand in her group so she did everyone's legs but her own.
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A life changing invention, but not necessarily a end all be all.
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