Wallace Hume Carothers was born on April 27 1896 in Burlington, Iowa and died on April 29 1937 in Philadelphia, Pa, USA. At the University of Illinois and later at Harvard University, Wallace Carothers performed research and taught organic chemistry. He first studied accounting and secretarial courses then entered Tarkio College as a science student while at the same time holding assistantships in English and commercial studies. After receiving a B.S. from Tarkio, Carothers obtained his master’s degree and doctor’s degrees from the University of Illinois. He also held a teaching position for a short period of time at the University of South Dakota. In 1928 he was appointed director of research in organic chemistry by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company at its laboratory in Wilmington, Del. Wallace Carothers has been called “one of the most brilliant organic chemists” ever employed by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company spent only nine years at The DuPont Company before his death. He investigated the structure of substances of high molecular weight (macromolecules) and their formation by the process of polymerization. His studies later led to the development of nylon (Patent Number 2,130,947) in 1938 (October 27th) and neoprene (Patent Number 2,130,948).

            One of his great discoveries, was Nylon. Nylon is an artificial fibre with properties similar and in many ways superior to such natural fibres as wool, cotton, and silk, and to neoprene , a synthetic rubber derived from vinylacetylene. Nylon was the first synthetic polymer fibre to be produced commercially and was the one that laid the foundation of the synthetic fibre industry which is very large and growing immensely today. The nylon craze all started in 1940 when American women charged into department stores all across the United States to purchase the latest garment. Women swarmed the department stores and purchased more than four million pairs of nylon hosiery in one day, holy smokes! There were literally “Nylon Riots” as the newspapers the next day reported. This was all thanks to Wallace Carothers who lead the team who developed nylon for the DuPont Company which also developed Polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon). The DuPont Company today is one of the largest multi-billion dollar companies around today.                                                               Carothers and his co-workers found that by polymerizing (condensation polymerization with the loss of a water molecule) a mixture of adipic acid and 1,6-diaminohexane they could make a plastic (nylon, which is a polyamide). They found that nylon could be drawn out into strong and silky fibers. This made nylon even more attractive because of the “silky” aspect of it which everyone even today considers expensive, delicate, and most of all, elegant.

            Wallace Carothers and his group produced several other nylons that were each a polyamide. To distinguish among each one they decided to code each one for the number of carbon atoms in each of their monomers. The one produced from the six carbon 1,6-diaminohexane and the six carbon adipic acid became nylon 6, 6. Actually “66 polyamide” was its original name for nylon and then “norun”. Then they spelled it backwards to give “nuron” before the term nylon was finally coined upon. Despite what many people may think, names are very important in industry and businesses. For example it is much better to have “nylon” then to say “I just purchased 66 polyamide”. It is hard to imagine what our world would be like if that’s they way products were named. Another nylon is nylon 6 which forms as the ring of caprolactam with the addition of a water molecule and the resulting amino acid (building block of a protein molecule) undergoes polymerization.

            Believe it or not but nylon’s first practical consumer use came in 1938 when it was introduced to the public in the form of toothbrush bristles!!! This once again shows that polymers are so complex and can take on many forms and that is what makes them extremely valuable to us. Nylon really “boomed” when it was sold as nylon stockings or other fashionable clothing and was similar to silk but obviously far less expensive as we all know. With the coming of World War II however fashion had to be halted and moderated for the war effort. The government used nylon to construct parachutes, ropes and other military equipment. Nylon stockings were simply rationed even though they were in extremely high demand.

            Would you believe that during World War II and shortly after it nylons were used as an informal form of currency in Europe. It was everywhere and it was not until the early 1950s that there was a sufficient production to fill the popular demand for nylons. Overall you could say that Wallace Carothers and nylon have a great and very interesting history. Thanks to him we have so many things today that didn’t even exist half a century ago. This is all great but it is really sad to know how  Carother ended it all. Under all that pressure Carothers was really frustrated and went into depression and ended up mixing some cyanide (not good stuff because it is toxic) with lemon juice and drank it. This was the sad and horrid incident which ended the career and life of this great chemist, Wallace Carothers.