Chapter 2
Doomsday DIY » Stir Up Some Nylon

ix up your own batch of one of the world's first synthetic materials. In 1938 the E.I. DuPont de Nemours Company, known at the time mainly as a maker of explosives, announced what was arguably the single most important invention in the history of legwear: nylon.

Nylon wasn't discovered by accident or extracted from a natural source. It was one of the first materials engineered from scratch, based on an understanding of polymer chemistry and a desire to plug what was, apparently, a serious hole in the hosiery industry. The company promised that this magical product would finally free the modern woman from the yoke of expensive, run-prone silk stockings. And it worked!