Spool of Nylon Fiber

• ca. 1938
• Manufactured by E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
• 7.125 in. H x 6.75 in. diameter
  Metal, nylon
• On display in Making Modernity
• Gift of Joseph X. Labovsky
• The Joseph X. Labovsky Collection
• 2004.543.183

Description

Nylon, developed in the late 1930s by a team headed by Wallace Carothers at E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, was the first totally synthetic fiber. Developed as a replacement for natural silk, nylon is a simple monomer-chain polymer created by polymerizing a polyamide in a salt mixture.