The synthetic fiber nylon was first commercially produced by the American chemical company DuPont. DuPont’s research team developed nylon 6,6 during the 1930s, transforming laboratory polymer research into a mass-market textile.
The key scientific work was led by chemist Wallace Hume Carothers at DuPont’s Experimental Station. The first nylon 6,6 sample was produced on 28 February 1935. DuPont patented the polymer in 1938 and introduced it publicly as a promising man-made alternative to silk.
Nylon first reached consumers in toothbrush bristles in 1938. Its most famous early use was women’s stockings, promoted at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and sold widely from 1940. The first commercial nylon plant opened at Seaford, Delaware, and began production on 15 December 1939.
Nylon’s fashion success was interrupted by the Second World War, when much of the available supply was redirected to military products such as parachutes, aircraft components and parachute cord. The common mix-up is to credit the material’s invention to a later manufacturer; DuPont created and commercialised the original nylon 6,6, although other companies later developed different nylon families.