February 28: Nylon, the World's First Fully Synthetic Fiber, Was Created

On February 28, 1935, chemist Wallace Hume Carothers synthesized the first sample of a new polymer at DuPont's Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware. Although its technical name was Dolxbexametbylene adipamide, it would eventually be known by something far simpler: nylon. It was the first fiber in history made entirely from synthetic, petroleum-derived chemicals rather than from anything found in nature. Soon enough, it would revolutionize fashion, warfare, industry, and the chemical sciences.

The search for a synthetic silk

In the early 1930s, DuPont had assembled a research division dedicated to fundamental polymer chemistry that was led by Carothers, who was a brilliant and notoriously perfectionistic Harvard-trained chemist.

Initially, his goal was not to invent a textile. Instead, it was to understand the basic chemistry of polymers, the long chain-like molecules that make up materials like rubber, cellulose, and proteins. Specifically, Carothers and his team were investigating a process called condensation polymerization, in which small molecules link together into long chains, releasing water as a byproduct.

Silk, at the time, was an enormously valuable but fragile and expensive material, mainly because it was imported almost entirely from Japan. Therefore, it was incredibly appealing — especially in the commercial eye — to produce a substitute with comparable strength and sheen domestically. Carothers's team experimented with combinations of diamines and dicarboxylic acids until they found a combination: coal, water, and air. These components would later be drawn into long, strong, silky fibers.

Stockings

DuPont publicly unveiled nylon at the 1939 New York World's Fair, where it caused a sensation.

The company began selling nylon stockings in 1940, and they were an immediate cultural phenomenon. Since they were just as sheer and flattering, but stronger and more affordable than silk stockings, demand was soaring. In fact, the term "nylon riot" was used to describe the chaotic scenes outside stores when shipments arrived.

However, that commercial moment was short-lived. With the outbreak of World War II, nylon production was redirected almost entirely toward the war effort in tools like parachutes, tents, ropes, tires, and netting. Its strength, light weight, and resistance to rot made it vastly superior to the natural fibers it replaced in military applications. 

Carothers's tragic story

Wallace Carothers never lived to see the full impact of his discovery. He suffered from severe depression for much of his adult life and died by suicide in April 1937, less than a month after filing the patent for nylon and just before his 41st birthday. He never saw nylon stockings sold commercially or witnessed the material's enormous wartime and postwar significance. For this reason, his death remains one of the more somber footnotes in the history of American chemistry.

Nylon's legacy

Nylon launched the entire field of synthetic fiber chemistry. Polyester, spandex, Kevlar, and countless other synthetic materials that followed all built on the polymer chemistry Carothers pioneered. Today, nylon is ubiquitous: you can find it in clothing, carpeting, rope, and 3D printing filament. Even more, it also represents how research driven by curiosity can generate incredible technologies as a byproduct.