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The DuPont Corporation was a center for many chemists to
"invent" products. In the 1930's Walter Carothers invented the
first human-made textile fabric prepared entirely by new materials
derived from petroleum products. Nylon was born.
Carothers used the new field of polymer chemistry, which are
large molecules consisting of repeated chemical units called "mers"
joined together in a line. Carothers found that six links of a CH2
would produce nylon-6. It was strong, clear, and had a stretchy fabric.
The first use of nylon was the bristles in a toothbrush, but it was soon
learned of all its other uses as a fabric.
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Walter Carothers
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