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Nylon

 Subject
Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings

Found in 18 Collections and/or Records:

Bruce A. Bydal papers

 Collection
Accession: 2692
Abstract:

Bruce A. Bydal (1937-) worked as a research engineer at the DuPont Company for over twenty years, is an expert in gun primers and chemicals, and an avid gun collector. He also worked with the Remington Arms Company, a subsidiary of the DuPont Company, to develop a new shotgun. The papers include descriptions of Bydal's work in DuPont's food and packaging division and his work at the Nylon plant in Martinsville, Virginia. However, approximately one-half of the records pertaining to his work in applied mathematics at Remington Arms, a gun manufacturing company acquired by DuPont during the great depression.

Dates: 1901-2001

"Cavalcade of America" television commercials on film

 Collection
Accession: 2005-254
Abstract:

The Cavalcade of America television show was an anthology drama which aired on NBC from 1952 to 1953 and ABC from 1953 to 1957. The show was adapted from a radio show of the same name sponsored by the DuPont Company, a chemical company, which began as a manufacturer of gunpowder in 1802.This collections consists of two reels of television commercials for various DuPont products. The commercials feature various spokesmen talking about or demonstrating the products. One commercial features DuPont Company president Crawford Greenewalt.

Dates: 1952-1957

Donald R. Hull photograph collection

 Collection
Accession: 1996-307
Abstract:

Donald Robert Hull (1911-1995) was a longtime employee at the DuPont Company mainly working with nylon and textile fibers. The collection consists of four scrapbook albums of material from Donald Hull's career with the Du Pont Company.

Dates: 1934-1978

DuPont Company photographs

 Collection
Accession: 2006-237
Abstract:

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 for the production of black powder. This collection includes publicity photographs from the DuPont Company, many relating to nylon and its uses in World War II. Other subjects include company executives, employees, and stock holders; various factories and facilities; general World War II production awards; high explosives workers; and hunting.

Dates: circa 1920-1970

DuPont Company Seaford Plant photographs and films

 Collection
Accession: 1990-266
Abstract:

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company, which began as a manufacturer of gunpowder in 1802. In 1939, the Seaford Plant was created by the DuPont Company near Seaford, Delaware to be the world’s first nylon plant. Dr. Wallace Hume Carothers (1896-1937) first produced Nylon at the DuPont Experimental Station in 1935. After determining that low-cost production was possible, the DuPont Company set out to build a plant to produce its first product, women's nylon hosiery. Seaford lost many of its first male employees to the war effort, but female workers oversaw the production of nylon for parachutes and B-29 bomber tires. After World War II, the plant was an important part of the DuPont Company’s textile fiber program. One of the production units was converted into a pilot plant in 1948 for “Fiber X”, later to be introduced as Dacron. In the mid-1980s, DuPont began downsizing at the plant and by 2003, sold its synthetic fiber division Invista, to Koch Industries, Inc. in a deal that included the Seaford plant. This collection documents nylon production at the DuPont Company Seaford plant in Seaford, Delaware. It contains photographs, negatives, pamphlets, two 16mm films and one VHS videocassette. The photographs and negatives document the exterior, employees, production of Nylon and miscellaneous activities at the Seaford plant and products created from nylon. The pamphlets were made by the DuPont Company and cover subjects such as world trade, research and pollution control. One pamphlet is specifically about the Seaford nylon plant. The film “Seaford Plant Start-Up” and film transfer on videocassette, document the opening of the plant on November 1, 1939 as well as some production when the plant opened on December 12, 1939.

Dates: 1938-1989, undated

DuPont Company Seaford Plant records

 Collection
Accession: 2777
Abstract:

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company that began as a gunpowder manufacturer in 1802. In 1939, the DuPont Company created the Seaford Plant near Seaford, Delaware, to be the world's first nylon plant. The bulk of the records in this collection relate to the planning of the Seaford Plant's 50th anniversary celebration events; however, there is a small amount of documentation related to the introduction of nylon, as well as operation and wage statistics from the 1940s through the 1960s that would be of interest to researchers interested in textiles, manufacturing, or labor practices.

Dates: 1938-1988

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Textile Fibers Department records

 Collection
Accession: 1771
Abstract:

The Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company was established in 1936 (known then as the Rayon Department), which specialized in researching and developing synthetic fibers for fabrics such as Rayon, Nylon, Teflon, Corian, and Kevlar. The collection consists of research files and other records from the primary divisions of the Textile Fibers Department, including the Pioneering Research Division, Rayon Research Division, Technical Service Section, and the research facilities at the Spruance Plant in Richmond, Virginia, and at the Yerkes Plant in Buffalo, New York. These files document the development of some of DuPont's best known and most commercially successful synthetic fibers: nylon, Dacron, and Orlon. Additionally, there are market research reports assessing product performance and consumer surveys evaluating customer attitudes toward products.

Dates: 1899-1988

Floyd Hollenbeck sales kit for Hanes Hosiery Mills Co. stereoviews and viewer

 Collection
Accession: 2013-226
Abstract:

Floyd Hollenbeck (1920-2002) worked for Trimfit Hosiery, a Hanes Hosiery Mills Company distribution company. Hanes Hosiery Mills Company was established in 1901. Hanes was an early adoptor of manufacturing nylon hosiery, created in 1938. Hanes Hosiery Mills researched and developed seamless pantyhose by the mid-1960s. This collection contains twenty-four Hanes Hosiery Mills Company Winston-Salem manufacturing plants and office stereoviews.

Dates: circa 1965

Guy B. Taylor papers

 Collection
Accession: 2643
Abstract:

Guy B. Taylor (1888-1972) worked at the DuPont Company, where he specialized in the oxidation of ammonia, the method of contact catalysis, and the synthesis of acetylene. His fragmentary papers document his career as a research chemist and include an autobiographical notebook that chronicles his life from childhood to retirement, Princeton dissertation on the dissociation of mercuric oxide, technical papers, patents, and papers from employment at DuPont's Experimental Station.

Dates: 1913-1968

John R. Johnson and Wallace Hume Carothers correspondence

 Collection
Accession: 1842
Abstract:

John Raven Johnson (1900-1988) was a professor of chemistry at Cornell University from 1930 until his retirement in 1965. He also served as a consultant to E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company from 1937 until 1951, where he worked for the Organic Chemicals Department. Wallace Hume Carothers (1896-1937) was a chemist and inventor of Neoprene artificial rubber and Nylon synthetic fiber. He worked as a chemist in E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's Fundamental Research Program from 1928 until his death in 1937. This collection consists of correspondence between Johnson and Carothers, who were close friends as well as colleagues. The letters are both professional and personal in nature. Several letters discuss laboratory research work in polymer chemistry and the role of the catalyst.

Dates: 1926-1936

Nylon patents notebook

 Collection
Accession: 2398
Abstract:

John R. McGrath (1923-2002) was a patent attorney who worked for E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company for most of his career. McGrath worked primarily on nylon and its products. This collection consists of a notebook McGrath assembled and titled "Collection of Nylon Art," containing all of the nylon patents of the DuPont Company that he could find.

Dates: 1940-1957

Nylon technical service notebook

 Collection
Accession: 2654
Abstract:

J. Edward Norton (1925-2009) worked for the DuPont Company in the Textile Fibers Department as a technical marketing specialist. The notebook he maintained includes company technical memoranda and bulletins covering the processing of Nylon, Orlon, and Dacron, the production of wool-polyester blends, and the carding, spinning, knitting, and finishing of artificial fibers.

Dates: 1951-1968

Oral history interviews on Wallace Carothers

 Collection
Accession: 1994-311
Abstract:

Wallace Hume Carothers (1896-1937) was chemist and inventor of Neoprene artificial rubber and Nylon synthetic fiber. He worked as a chemist in E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's Fundamental Research Program from 1928 until his death in 1937. This collection contains five interviews conducted in July and August of 1978 with Wallace Carothers’s friends and colleagues. The interviewees primarily share stories and focus on their feelings surrounding Carothers’s personality, work, and suicide.

Dates: 1978

Oral history interviews with former employees of DuPont Company's Textile Fibers Department

 Collection
Accession: 2010-215
Abstract:

The Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company was established in 1936 as the Rayon Department, which specialized in researching and developing synthetic fibers for fabrics such as Nylon, Orlon, Dacron, and Lycra. The collection consists of oral history interviews conducted by Joseph Plasky, with former employees of DuPont's Textile Fibers department.

Dates: 2007-2010; 2014-2020

Oral history project notes on Wallace Hume Carothers

 Collection
Accession: 1985
Abstract:

Wallace Hume Carothers (1896-1937) was a chemist and inventor of Neoprene artificial rubber and Nylon synthetic fiber. He worked as a chemist in E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's Fundamental Research Program from 1928 until his death in 1937. The records include the handwritten transcripts of a series of interviews with persons who knew and worked with Carothers, conducted in 1978 and 1979. The interviews were conducted by Adeline Bassett Cook Strange (1917-2004), a teacher, researcher, and volunteer who spent her life dedicated to various charitable projects around Wilmington, Delaware.

Dates: 1925-1979; Majority of material found within 1978-1979

Parry Norling collection of DuPont Company records

 Collection
Accession: 2510
Abstract:

Parry Norling (1939-) was a career research chemist and manager with E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Records consists of company documents and outside publications collected by Norling during his time at DuPont.

Dates: 1902-2004; Majority of material found within 1980-1995

Wallace Hume Carothers materials on Nylon

 Collection
Accession: 2726
Abstract:

Wallace Hume Carothers (1896-1937) was a chemist and inventor of Neoprene artificial rubber and Nylon synthetic fiber. He worked as a chemist in E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's Fundamental Research Program from 1928 until his death in 1937. This small collection consists of a mixture of materials collected in the decades following Carothers death related to the development of Nylon and polymerization. Included are reprinted articles, patent applications, biographical materials, and newspaper clippings.

Dates: 1933-1997

Wallace Hume Carothers papers

 Collection
Accession: 1896
Abstract:

Wallace Hume Carothers (1896-1937) was a chemist and inventor of Neoprene artificial rubber and Nylon synthetic fiber. He worked as a chemist in E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's Fundamental Research Program from 1928 until his death in 1937. This small collection consists of Carothers' professional and technical correspondence, primarily with colleagues in the Chemistry Department at Iowa State University, Harvard, and the DuPont Company. The papers describe the DuPont Company's recruitment of Carothers and his work on polymerization, which led to the development of Nylon.

Dates: 1925-1936