Materials · 1935

Nylon

The first synthetic fiber strong enough to replace silk.

Wallace Carothers at DuPont synthesized nylon 6,6 in 1935, and stockings went on sale in 1939. Nylon proved polymers could be designed on purpose.

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1