DuPont's lab synthesizes the first sample of nylon
On this day · 28 February 1935
A half-ounce of polymer pulled from coal-derived chemicals launched the age of synthetic fibers — and, soon after, nylon stockings.
On 28 February 1935, a research group led by DuPont chemist Wallace Hume Carothers prepared the first batch of the polymer the company would market as nylon — specifically nylon 6-6, built from two six-carbon building blocks. It was the breakthrough that turned years of fundamental polymer research into a usable, spinnable fiber.
Carothers had been hired in 1928 to chase pure science, and his team had already drawn an early synthetic fiber in 1934. But the nylon 6-6 made on that February day, derivable from chemicals found in coal, proved strong, elastic, and practical enough to manufacture.
The first nylon product on sale wasn’t glamorous: toothbrush bristles, in 1938.
Carothers never saw the triumph. He died in April 1937. Nylon went into mass production in 1939, and DuPont’s nylon stockings caused a sensation at that year’s New York World’s Fair, kicking off the modern era of synthetic textiles.
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