The first nylon, nylon 6,6, was synthesized using diamines on February 28, 1935 by Wallace Hume Carothers at DuPont's research facility at the DuPont Experimental Station. It was called fiber 66 because each of its components had six carbon atoms. Diamines from C2 to C18 were synthesized and reacted with aliphatic and aromatic dicarboxylic acids to make polyamides, which were then melt spun and evaluated as fibers.
The process was technically complex, involving new raw materials, new fiber-forming techniques and unfamiliar materials of construction. The first nylon filament plant was built in 1939 at Seaford, Delaware, and nylon stockings went on sale nationally on May 15, 1940.
Early in 1940 the company announced plans to construct a second plant at Martinsville, Virginia; and in July 1948, it opened a third plant at Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Discovery of nylon at DuPont
