Sunday, November 7, 2010
Nylon
Nylon and Polymers and Carothers, Oh My!
There is no doubt that two of the world's most highly used synthetic materials are nylon and polyester. They are very similar in structure too - both are made of polymers. In case you didn't know, a polymer (according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary) is a chemical compound of mixture consisting essentially of repeating structural units. They can be found everywhere because plastics are made up of polymers and plastic is all of the world - from textiles to Tupperware! The man who was behind it all is, Wallace Hume Carothers.
Wallace Hume Carothers' education after high school began at Capital City Commercial College at Des Moines, Iowa. After that, he attended a four-year program at Tarkio College in Missouri, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in chemistry. Lastly, he graced his presence at the University of Illinois, where he received his doctorate in 1924.
In 1928, the chemical firm, E. I. DuPont de Nemours hired Carothers as the director of a new research program. With his team of researchers, Carothers was able to engineer a synthetic polymer fiber out of a test tube. This fiber had many similar qualities as silk, which at the time was hard to obtain due to Japan being the United State's main source of silk and the United States was having political troubles with Japan. Therefore, this new synthetic fiber was exactly what the United States needed. Thanks to Carothers' knowledge in science (more specifically, chemistry), he was able to engineer it, and he named it, nylon.
Nylon was very revolutionary due to it being able to make many different objects, from parachutes to mascara. It's first real success came with it being used in women's stockings in 1940. Sadly, after the invention of pantyhose, the United States entered World War II, and nylon had to be used for military equipment, such as parachutes and rope, therefore, women had a hard time getting their hands on their beloved "nylons" (the name bestowed on pantyhose, or stockings). Even before it was used to make stockings, nylon was used to make tooth brush bristles.
Synthetic materials, such as nylon, polyester, acrylic, and polypropylene, have created a much wider spectrum of items that are available to consumers today. They have also decreased the price of many products, for they are no longer being made out of 100% silk, cotton or wool, which are more expensive to buy. People come into contact with numerous synthetic materials everyday. They are in almost all the clothes that we wear, our shoes, in the cars we drive, and also in make up brushes. Have you ever asked yourself what our tooth brush bristles would be made out of if we didn't have these synthetic materials? What would we use for the bristles? Our clothes would be made out of all organic and natural fibers, thus making them more expensive.
Luckily for us, however, we do not need to worry about such things, because we do have our synthetic materials, thanks to Wallace Carothers and his team of scientists!
Wallace Carothers 1896-1937
Wallace Hume Carothers' education after high school began at Capital City Commercial College at Des Moines, Iowa. After that, he attended a four-year program at Tarkio College in Missouri, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in chemistry. Lastly, he graced his presence at the University of Illinois, where he received his doctorate in 1924.
In 1928, the chemical firm, E. I. DuPont de Nemours hired Carothers as the director of a new research program. With his team of researchers, Carothers was able to engineer a synthetic polymer fiber out of a test tube. This fiber had many similar qualities as silk, which at the time was hard to obtain due to Japan being the United State's main source of silk and the United States was having political troubles with Japan. Therefore, this new synthetic fiber was exactly what the United States needed. Thanks to Carothers' knowledge in science (more specifically, chemistry), he was able to engineer it, and he named it, nylon.
Nylon was very revolutionary due to it being able to make many different objects, from parachutes to mascara. It's first real success came with it being used in women's stockings in 1940. Sadly, after the invention of pantyhose, the United States entered World War II, and nylon had to be used for military equipment, such as parachutes and rope, therefore, women had a hard time getting their hands on their beloved "nylons" (the name bestowed on pantyhose, or stockings). Even before it was used to make stockings, nylon was used to make tooth brush bristles.
Synthetic materials, such as nylon, polyester, acrylic, and polypropylene, have created a much wider spectrum of items that are available to consumers today. They have also decreased the price of many products, for they are no longer being made out of 100% silk, cotton or wool, which are more expensive to buy. People come into contact with numerous synthetic materials everyday. They are in almost all the clothes that we wear, our shoes, in the cars we drive, and also in make up brushes. Have you ever asked yourself what our tooth brush bristles would be made out of if we didn't have these synthetic materials? What would we use for the bristles? Our clothes would be made out of all organic and natural fibers, thus making them more expensive.
Luckily for us, however, we do not need to worry about such things, because we do have our synthetic materials, thanks to Wallace Carothers and his team of scientists!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)