Because nylon is strong, it is used for rugs, tubing, fishing lines and parachutes. Broad fibers of nylon make long-wearing brush bristles. It stretches well and thus makes stockings that fit readily.
Nylon was developed in 1938 by a chemist, Dr. Wallace H. Carothers at Du Pont Company. He combined two organic chemicals— hexamethylene-dlamine and adipic acid by forming polymers of them. Du Pont engineers then had to devise ways to produce in quantity these two, formerly rare chemicals. They finally succeeded in making them from common materials (gases of air, etc.).
To carry on the synthesis, the two compounds are heated by steam, then put under pressure. The semisolid nylon comes out as a flabby sheet that is ice-cooled to barden it.
It can next be chopped into bits and stored. Fiber is made from the bits by reheating and thus melting them in an oxidation-preventing atmosphere (as in nitrogen gas). This melted nylon is forced through fine holes to come
out as fibers. A twisting and stretching process then lines up the nylon molecules to give a strong final product.
