The encyclopedia · R&D & Science · Technical decision · 1930–1940
DuPont built nylon by cold-drawing one molecule chain, then aimed it at silk.
Carothers found that stretching a polymer thread aligned its molecules into a strong fiber; DuPont focused nylon on the $70M silk-hosiery market.
DuPont · Wallace Hume Carothers
the move
In 1927 DuPont's research director Charles M. A. Stine persuaded executives to let him open a fundamental-research lab and hire star academic chemists with freedom to work on pure problems. Wallace Hume Carothers went to study polymers, which were still a mystery.
Carothers built very large chain molecules and found he could remove the water that limited their length. In 1930 his colleague Julian Hill pulled a sample and discovered a sample could be cold-drawn into a filament, and that stretching lined the molecules up and made the fiber strong. That polyester was too low-melting to be a textile.
Carothers then made polyamides, which melt higher. The best, nylon 6-6, was prepared on February 28, 1935. Research director Elmer K. Bolton steered development toward one target: the $70 million-a-year silk-hosiery market, where a cheap, tough, machine-washable fiber could win.
DuPont announced nylon on October 27, 1938, teased it for 18 months, then in May 1940 sold four million pairs of hosiery in a day; by year end, 60 million pairs had sold. Nylon became the biggest moneymaker in DuPont history.
why it works
- Cold-drawing orients tangled polymer chains into a strong linear fiber
- Nylon needed only a plausible fiber, which the hosiery market already prized
- Aiming at silk, the costly incumbent, guaranteed a buyer for the new thing
- Fundamental research paid off by finding the mechanism, then one application for it
what transfers
A new material needs a single beachhead use, not a broad promise; pick the application where the incumbent is costly and the new thing is simply better, then let that first win fund the rest.
what came after
Nylon replaced silk in hosiery, parachutes, rope, and plastic parts during World War II and became DuPont's most profitable product. Its model of funded fundamental research ended in the now-common industrial research lab; Carothers died in 1937 before his posthumous patent was issued.
references
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