The invention of Nylon

The invention of Nylon

Like many great invention, nylon was a by-product of the work started back in 1926 in the Du Point laboratories

Dr. Wallace Hume Caruthers joined the Du Point laboratories in 1928 as head of organic chemistry research at the Wilmington laboratory Delaware.

Wallace Carothers was born on April 27 1896 started his career at Capital City Commercial College in Des Moines, Lowa, in a program of accountancy and secretarial administration, whist teaching accountancy at the Tarkio College in Missouri he studied science, as an undergraduate student was appointed head of chemistry, Although a talented chemist the real reason for his appointment was the shortage of suitable people due to World War 1.

He received his PhD from the University of Illinois and then became a professor at Harvard where he first started his research into chemical structures of polymers in1924.
By 1928 the DuPont chemical company opened an Organic Chemicals research laboratory for the development of artificial materials, deciding that basic research was the way to go - not a common path for a company to follow at the time, it's reported that DuPont were investing $20,000 per month into this laboratory.
DuPont’s Charles Stine (Stine known for his work on developing TNT established the Organic Chemicals Division within the DuPont Chemical Department in 1916 by 1930 Charles Stine was made a vice president and director of DuPont in 1930) he recruited Dr. Carothers for the fundamental research program that Stine was then organizing. Elmer K. Bolton, Carothers’s immediate boss, asked him to investigate the chemistry of an acetylene polymer that might lead to a synthetic rubber.
April 1930, Carothers’ team discovered neoprene synthetic rubber and synthesized the first polyester super polymer, the forerunner of nylon.
April 1930 and a  lab assistant working with esters–compounds which yield an acid and an alcohol or phenol in reaction with water–discovered a very strong polymer that could be drawn into a fibre. This polyester fibre had a low melting point, however. Carothers changed course and began working with amides, which were derived from ammonia.
 1935 Carothers found a strong polyamide fibre that stood up well to both heat and solvents. He evaluated more than 100 different polyamide before choosing one for development.
Dr. Carothers married Helen Sweetman in 1936, a colleague of his at DuPont. A year later, April 29th 1937 he tragically committed suicide alone in a hotel in Philadelphia after a lifelong bout with depression.
Nylon changed the way people dressed worldwide and rendered the term "silk stocking"–once an epithet directed at the wealthy elite–obsolete.

 The very first nylon stocking

Nylon stocking were brought to market remarkably quickly, in part due to Dupont's learning from there experience with rayon and missing out on that market.

After determining that low-cost production were possible and settling on a target market (women's hosiery), Dupont produced a preliminary batch of nylon staple to confirm that the nylon hose would be practical, the sample was delivered to a commercial knitting mill under conditions of extreme secrecy (the research chemist who delivered the samples to the mill even slept with the sample on the train).
It took two test runs and a little further development to convince Dupont to build a pilot plant in Wilmington, then finally a full-scale production facility in Seaford Delaware on the 30 th of March 1939 Dupont made an agreement with ICI (Imperial Chemical Company) for the exclusive rights to produce nylon in the UK, in conjunction with ICI rivals Courtaulds, together they set up a third company called British Nylon Spinners Ltd (BNS)
The very first pair of nylon stocking when on sale as a small trial in a department store in Wilmington, Delaware (U.S.A) made by Du Point on the 27 October 1939 just to test the market.
They were a huge success with ladies coming from miles around to buy the new nylon stockings, the store sold out in a few hours as news spread about the area about these stockings.
On the 3rd of September 1939 Britain and France declared war on Germany following the German invasion of Poland a month before Du point launched their nylon stockings.
January 1940 ICI transferred its exclusive rights for a fee over to British Nylon Spinners (BNS) to manufacture and distribution of nylon yarn in the UK, because British was at war the priority of the production of nylon was given over to war production of rope and parachutes along with other war related product instead of yarn for the production of stockings.
By the 15th of May 1940 the USA the first nylons stocking when on sale to the general public for the first time selling over 72,000 pairs in the first day alone.
The total sales for the first year are estimated to have been around 64 million pairs With these new nylon stocking du point captured 30% of hosiery market, although there wear plenty of nylons available for the ladies in the  United States very few pairs would find their way across the Atlantic Ocean and onto the legs of the  UK ladies. This was because of the success the Germans were having in cutting Britain off from America with their "U" boats fleet sinking an average of 22,000 tons of ships each month from the merchant fleet. Only essential supplies to keep the British war effort going was brought across this dangerous route nylon stocking were not one of the essentials needed in the UK.


This fun photo which might have been staged by the photographer shows a lady who look so pleased to be able to buy a pair of stocking has decided to put them on whist sat in pubic on the side walk.
The British Nylon Spinners had their first production plant in operation in Coventry by 23 January 1940, it's total output of nylon gong to fill government contracts for war materials, a second plant Stow Market was also confined to government production mainly nylon for parachute fabric.
With very few pairs of nylon stocking to wear ladies had to "make do and mend" a term which would become all too familiar as the war progressed in the UK.

By 1941 clothing rationing come in to effect in the UK, The government controlled the styles of clothes and how they were made to reduce the quantity of raw materials require to make them this was called the CC41  standard, the number of individual items a person could buy was restricted by issuing clothing coupons.

Stockings were rationed like all clothing (except second-hand clothes) a lady required 2 clothing coupons to buy 1 pair of stocking out of her total allocation of 66 coupons per year (1941) by the end of rationing the allocation had fallen down to 36 per year cotton, silk and wool stocking all came under the CC41 regulations.

The number of coupons an person needed to buy a item?

The number of clothing coupons which were needed to buy an item was published by the board of trade in newspapers like the one on the left.
The US government followed with their rationing on the 7th December 1941 forming the war production board (WPB), this was to regulate the production and allocation of materials.
Nylon now came under the control of this board the amount of fibre used in civilian clothing was now restricted so by that 1943 it was nearly impossible to buy a pair of the new nylons in a store in the USA.
Du point ceased production of nylon stockings and switched over to making parachutes, air-plane cords and ropes, it's Seaford plant made parachutes and b-29 bomber tires with mainly a female work force as many men when into the armed force.

It also has to be mentioned that at this time Germany had also developed a man-made fibre in top secret called Perlon a synthetic fibre similar to the American nylon - this was invented by the German chemist Dr. Paul Schlack at I.G.-Farben. They also had a test run to make Perlon into ladies stocking after which it was declared to be a military defense material under the code name "Perluran" be one again production was diverted mainly into the German war preparation and later the war itself.

Join the forces and you would have some stocking issued

For the ladies joining one of the armed forces then things were lightly different as you would be issued with a uniform which would include 3pairs of cotton lisle stockings and two suspender belts/corset, it's probable with time that the female service personnel would sneak in their own hosiery and undergarments but this was against regulations.
There are stories of the female work force at the top secrete Bletchley park drying their underwear next to the hot computers, which was of course was very much looked down upon.

USA enters the war and there are now a few more pair's nylons around.

With the build up a American troops in preparation for the invasion of Europe a small number of nylon stocking were brought into the UK by these GI's.
Compared to the potential demand this was still a very small number, mainly they would be given out to their girlfriends.
At this time they might have been a small number of nylons made during the war years these would be mainly for proper gander purposes it very difficult to be certain about this.

The lengths that women would go to wear a pair of stockings.

These are a very rare pair of nylon stocking as you can see they are new and unworn made in the UK by, they have the CC41 mark in the top right of each stocking, close examination shows these stocking are not as sheer as you imagine.
Now with a shortage of stocking ladies would re-sort to wearing the hosiery they already had store away for special occasion pre-wartime, these m would have been silk stockings, cotton lisle or rayon.

Life without stockings

The majority of ladies would not have nylons to wear  from an estimation only 1% of ladies wore nylons regularly the others had to become very resourcefully because  it was thought that a lady without stockings was improperly dressed if she was out in public.
Ladies started to draw a line down the back of their leg to achieve the look of wearing stocking using an eye brow pencil or something similar to give this seamed effect.

For drawing a seam on your e.g. Max factor brought out a devise which helped to guide her to create a straight seam down the back of her leg ( left photo) instead of doing y or have someone ( left photo ) do it for you.
Occasionally ladies would even try to colour their legs with gravy browning mixed with a cream other home-made formula were developed using other house hold products to produce the desired effect, the problem I am told is if it rained when she was wearing some of these it would end up be a streaky mess down her leg.
A multitude of commercial products were also marketed towards the end of the war for colouring your legs to look like they were wearing stockings max factor brought out a cream around this time to simulate stockings which was applied in a similar way to normal face foundation today.
Path'e news made a news real showing this cream been applied by a lady to her legs, cosmetic were also rationed in war time so the max factor cream might also have been hard to come by another way to simulate a seam of a stocking was have a line tattooed on the back of their legs, this was more often done by wife of seamen, who were used to seeing tattoos on their husbands as a long tradition with seamen. Today a few ladies still decide to have a tattoo seam done.
For the ladies who did have a pair of nylons to wear the worst thing that could happen was when she got a ladder or run in them as nylons were so precious products were marketed to help her minimize the damage by sealing the thread.

One such product was called lad stick manufactured
by Griffith & associates Ltd of Bristol, most likely made in the latter half of the 40's.

Instruction are printed on the back of the packet telling the lady to moisten the tip of the stick in her mouth and rub it onto the top and bottom of the run, it also says that the substance used is not harmful for her, it's the same principle which was used more recently with nail varnish.

Wartime black market nylons.

With the general shortage of nylon stocking  it's inevitable that an illegal black market would soon sprung up it is very unclear how all the stocking found their way onto the black market,  the cost of a pair of nylon stocking on the black market could be as much as $20 in the U.S.A.
There are several true stories about nylons stocking been made especially for the black market in the U.S.A, one is where thirteen cases of nylon yarn was stolen in transit to a parachute factory eventually ending up at a hosiery mill where the yarn was made up into stocking.
Another story was about a silk mill who had a contract to make glider tow rope and with a little false accounting managed to make a large quantity of yarn disappear, subsequently making this yarn up into nylon stocking.
Other cases included rayon stockings been sold as "nylons". The documentation for these along with other examples is held at the smithsonian.org there must have been many more black market nylons stocking schemes which when undetected throughout the war years.

Post war years and we have nylons again

Production of nylon yarn for stocking started up again in the UK in December 1946 the production of yarn was controlled as it was destined for the export market to earn valuable money for the country, going to only to a few hosiery knitters who were on a what was called the " Preferred list" Aristoc been one of them along with I. R Morley's these companies were chosen because of its large number of contact they had abroad to market the nylon efficiently. Nylon stocking for home consumption was still restricted as the clothing rationing did not end until 1951.

British nylon spinners had the capacity supply most industries with their requirements for nylon yarn, at that time it had the largest factor floor in Europe with approx. 15 looms going all day, clothing might be the exception this as rationing remained in force until 1951.

In the USA the production of nylon yarn and also stockings which were destined to be sold to the ladies started again in 1946 it took a little while before the production was satisfying demand and in several cities including Pittsburgh fights broke out in the street when 40,000 ladies queued up for only 13,000 pairs of nylon, called "the nylon riots" in the popular press.






By the mid 1950's nylons were readily available again for any lady the buy whenever they wanted a pair, these stockings were very much sheerer than what was seen in previous decades with a much larger range of shades.

The hosiery manufacture by now had time to buy brand new knitting machines and install them into their mill like the one above these were American Reading machines.