European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 21, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse The50year run or Nylon stockings iwo nov Apon up few by Robert m. Andrews associated Pressi t was so years ago thai the alchemists Al Dupont turned Coal tar into Nylon and unwillingly sparked a social revolution that put sheer blocking on the legs of millions o american women who could t afford the luxury of silk. Nylon was first used Lor Toothbrush bristles then fishing lines and surgical sutures bul in was Nylon stockings that women fell in love with. Ii was the Best thing Hal Ever happened to a lady said Isabel Davis &1. Of los Angeles who fondly remembers gelling her first pair of nylons when she was graduated from Junior High school. She was 14. I really fell like a she said. I have Lour Sisters and we All loved them. I still Wear them with Rome Lonos and Flowers and the old fashioned Hind Wilh seams in the Back 1 a display of nylons created a sensation at the new York world s fair in 1939. When they first went on Sals in me York City stores on May 15. 1940. Women bought up 4 million pairs in a few hours. A depression by ton off her shapely Leys at t wet Bond rutty and they wars auctioned forf40,000. Suddenly hit the japanese silk Market. They were marvelous said Grace Lyons Al suburban Washington who grew the Bronx. By. They wore like icon. They d last for a year then us As women Gol accustomed to wearing nylons the stockings vanished from store shelves during world War ii. The fabric was melted Down to make parachutes and Ajr Crall tires. Movie pin up girl belly grab peeled the nylons of her shapely legs at a War Bond rally and they were auctioned for �40.000. Teen agers unable to find nylons on the Black Market painted Black seams Down the Back of their legs to impress their boyfriends. Young women sul Loring fhe drab austerity of wartime London discovered that Friendly american gis were willing suppliers of nylons obtainable at the Post exchanges Wtown they weren t available elsewhere. A mob of 10,000 shoppers descended on Market Streel in san Francisco Lor he first postwar Sale of nylons in 194s. A department store window was shattered several women fainted and the Sale was cancelled. Hollywood celebrated the return of nylons by hoisting actress Marie Wilson aloft on a Crane of examine a 35-foot Model of her Nylon sheathed log. Londoner Ivy Bull 75. Recalls Hal she could Only Wea Colton Lisle stockings until irions resumed from the United Stales in 1946 bringing her a Giff of her first pair of nylons. You did t Wear whom every Day said Bull they were just a couple of pahs and you just took care of them. You wore them if you were going anywhere special Wilh your Best Boullit. Hal was the nylons would got runs the British Call them ladders if a thread was caught on a jagged Fingernail la a common knowledge that a dab of Lin Gornail posse will Slop a run from galling any worse. Bud would Lake her slow wings to a repair shop and they would clean up the ladders for you " Mary Pennybacker. A native londoner who lives in Washington be members her Molher hanging Ladderud Tylana irom is Manlel As Christmas stockings kalhor than tossing them out. Nylons also Are useful to Bank robbers who sometimes Wear them Over i hair laces As a disguise. And Nylon has become a Lantas Lic Money machine fix Dupont. Corporate officials say Salodof Liber have totalled More than s10 billion since do font s list Nylon factory began operations in Seaford Del., a Hall Century ago hone of the team of on Pont research scientists who invented Nylon in the 1930s could have envisioned that an estimated 8 billion pounds would be manufactured worldwide to years later Lor use in thousands of hems from cloth my and carpels to Lacrosse socks and circus Longs. Afler years of experimenting with Man made polymers or Bead like strings of molecules. Dupont chemists under Wallace h. Carothers. A wizard hired from Harvand University produced a Lough durable flexible Liber using chemical budding blocks derived from Coal Lar air and water. Bul nobody said Eureka " remembers Julian Hill 83. A Carol hers associate now comfortably retired near Dupont Headquarters Al Wilmington Del. I suppose we had Hopes but we were doing Basic scientific research and it just happened that this led to something that toned out to be ii was Hill who discovered lha a Mollen polymer could be drawn into filaments cooled and stretched la lorm very Strong fibres an Early Brinkl Hough toward the invention of Nylon. Al a Washington luncheon celebrating the soil anniversary of Nyom and Tellon. Another Dupont invention. Hill Sal chuckling As models wearing Nylon bikinis pranced Down a runway Carothers who sul Feied fils Al severe depression and was convinced he was a failure Commil cd suicide in a Philadelphia Holjol room three weeks alter the Nylon Patent application was tied in 1937, and sue months Belore the birth of his Only child when the invention was announced m new York in october 1930, says Dupont chairman Richard e. Heckert the Story was buried on Page 24 of 7he new Orlf times and almost ignored by the Wall Street journal. Dupont Stock Tell by a Point and a Hall on Wall Streel. But when Dupont research vice president charges Masline made the announcement before a National women s conference the audience applauded loudly when he said Nylon could be used for run resistant stockings. The if nylons were advertised for a top Price of $1.35 a pair which was a lol of Money in 1940 but a lot cheaper than silk stockings which Cost two or three times As much. Silk stockings were extremely delicate and easily Lorn did l keep their shape and became baggy 91 the Ankles irom body heat. But their owners Lucky or affluent enough to Aiford them Caj Lully wrapped them in tissue paper As treasured symbols of Glamor and elegance. Before nylons most working women had to Settle for Collon or Wool hosiery. Today according to the National association of hosiery manufacturer american women spend about $3.5 billion annually on sheer hosiery 99 percent of h containing Black seams Down the Back disappeared by the Early 1950s, when textile Mills discovered How to knit hosiery yarn in cylindrical tubes. The Advent of Strelch Nylon in the late 1950s led to the introduction of Waist High pantyhose which allowed women to throw away their garters and belts and join the miniskirt Revok lion of the 1960s. Pantyhose now account for 70 percent of hosiery sales there once was speculation when War was declared against Japan and silk supplies were halted that Nylon was an acronym that blood Lor nuts you Lousy old actually Nylon is a meaningless word coined by Dupont simply because it is easy to spell and pronounce. Sunday february 21. 198s the stabs and stripes Page 17
