ABSTRACT
Nylons are engineering thermoplastic resins and are members of the polyamide family. The first nylon, nylon 6/6, was developed by DuPont Corporation.
DuPont’s systematic search for a replacement for the silk used in parachutes yielded fruit when Wallace Caruthers and his team (Julian Hill et al.) invented nylon [1,2] in 1931. This effort and achievement contributed to the plastics industry’s “rich period” of the 1930s. DuPont’s invention of nylon marked a new era in the plastics industry, and the role of R&D in inventions and innovations. DuPont’s strategic marketing of the new nylon stockings demonstrated the role of marketing and advertisement in the new plastics industry. DuPont had targeted the then 1.6 million pairs of stockings per year market for women dominated by silk’s sheerness. Nylon has comparable sheer properties to silk, and better than those of wool, rayon, and cotton. Wool is thick and scratchy, rayon droops and does not sheer enough and “bags” at the ankles, and cotton is not suitable for stockings application. The marketing for nylon as the “first true synthetic fiber” was nationwide, and the cost-effectiveness of nylon versus the very expensive silk was demonstrated at trade shows and conventions. World War II interrupted this “blitz” as the U.S. military acquired all available nylon for its war efforts and particularly for the parachute manufacturing effort. Other uses of nylon included tire cords, ropes, flak vests, etc.
