The Nylon Patent
Next: February 16, 2027
The thread that changed everyday life.
The story
Where it comes from
This Story marks the anniversary of 16 February 1937, when the chemical company DuPont was granted US patent 2,071,250 for 'Linear Condensation Polymers', the invention of its research chemist Wallace Carothers. The patent covered synthetic polymers that could be drawn into strong, pliable fibres, and DuPont named the new fibre nylon. Carothers' laboratory work, begun around 1930, also helped prove that giant molecules called macromolecules really exist, laying a foundation for modern polymer science.
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance, but the anniversary is a fine day to notice how much nylon quietly does, from toothbrush bristles to the clothes in your wardrobe. Science teachers can use it to show how a laboratory discovery becomes an everyday object, and Hagley Museum and Library in Delaware, which holds DuPont's archives, has written about the date and the patent.
Did you know
- One of the first products to use the new fibre was the toothbrush, whose nylon bristles replaced hog hair, and DuPont began making bristle fibre on 24 February 1938.
- Carothers' laboratory also produced neoprene, the first commercially successful specialty synthetic rubber.
- DuPont first aimed the new fibre at the lucrative silk-stocking market, with other uses to follow.
Coming up next
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