Nylon

Nylon was the first fully synthetic fiber, built from petrochemicals rather than any natural material, invented at DuPont under Wallace Carothers and announced in 1938. Strong, elastic, and fine, it launched commercially as nylon stockings in 1940, which sold out instantly. The Second World War then diverted the entire supply to parachutes, tents, and ropes, and the stocking shortage became a wartime byword. After the war nylon flooded back into hosiery, lingerie, windbreakers, and carpet, and it proved that a useful fiber could be made entirely in a laboratory.

Illustration: a crowd of women in period coats and hats queuing along a city sidewalk outside a department store window in 1940 for the first nylon stockings, a hand-lettered sign in the glass, the figures seen from behind and at a distance — A crowd of women in period coats and hats queuing along a city sidewalk outside a department store window in 1940 for the first nylon stockings, a hand-lettered sign in the glass, the figures seen from behind and at a distance.

Named for

A coined DuPont trade name from 1938 with no settled meaning; popular folk etymologies link it to New York and London but are not the documented origin.