The Chemist Who Gave Women Nylon and Took His Own Life
Wallace Hume Carothers invented nylon — the material that transformed the lingerie, hosiery, and fashion industries forever. He was a DuPont research chemist, a brilliant organic chemist, and a man who suffered from severe depression throughout his adult life. In 1937, at the age of 41, he checked into a Philadelphia hotel room and swallowed a capsule of potassium cyanide.
He never saw what his invention would become.
The Burlington Boy
Born in 1896 in Burlington, Iowa, Carothers was academically extraordinary from the start. He earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois and taught briefly at Harvard before DuPont recruited him in 1928 to lead their new fundamental research program.
The offer was remarkable for the time. DuPont was one of the first corporations to invest in pure research — science without an immediate commercial application. Carothers was given a laboratory, a team, and freedom. He was told to discover things. What he discovered changed the world.
The Invention of Nylon
Carothers's research focused on polymers — large molecules made from repeating chemical units. His team had already produced neoprene (synthetic rubber) in 1930, but the breakthrough came in 1935 when his team synthesized polyamide 6,6 — the polymer that would be commercially named nylon.
The properties were extraordinary:
- Stronger than silk but lighter
- Elastic and resilient — it could stretch and return to its original shape
- Resistant to moisture, chemicals, and abrasion
- Inexpensive to manufacture at scale
DuPont immediately recognized the commercial potential. Nylon would replace silk in stockings — a market worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Nylon Stockings Revolution
DuPont introduced nylon stockings to the public on May 15, 1940 — three years after Carothers's death. On the first day of general sale, five million pairs were sold. Women lined up around the block. The product was so successful that during World War II, when nylon was diverted to military uses (parachutes, tents, ropes), a black market for nylon stockings emerged.
The material transformed the lingerie industry:
- Nylon replaced silk in bras, panties, and slips
- It enabled lighter, more comfortable undergarments that could be mass-produced
- It democratized lingerie — materials that had been luxury goods became accessible to ordinary women
- It spawned an entire category of synthetic intimate apparel that dominates the market to this day
The Depression
Throughout his career at DuPont, Carothers struggled with clinical depression. His condition was severe and recurring. He was hospitalized multiple times. He told colleagues that he felt his best work was behind him, despite being in his late thirties.
His personal life offered little respite. He married in 1936 but the marriage did not alleviate his condition. He carried a capsule of cyanide with him — a habit that alarmed his friends and colleagues but that he described as comforting: knowing he had the means to end his suffering gave him a sense of control.
The End
On April 29, 1937, Carothers checked into a hotel room in Philadelphia. He mixed the potassium cyanide with lemon juice and drank it. He was 41 years old. His daughter was born two months later.
He had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences just the year before — the first industrial organic chemist to receive that honor. He was at the peak of his professional recognition and the bottom of his personal despair.
Why He Matters to Lingerie
Without Wallace Carothers, the modern lingerie industry as we know it would not exist. Nylon is the foundational material of contemporary intimate apparel. Every bra, every pair of tights, every piece of shapewear that uses synthetic fibers traces its lineage back to a laboratory in Wilmington, Delaware, where a depressed genius synthesized a polymer that could replace silk.
He gave women comfort, affordability, and freedom. He could not give himself any of these things.
He invented nylon. He transformed lingerie forever. He never saw any of it. Wallace Carothers is the saddest genius in the history of fashion.