Wallace H. Carothers
DuPont Chemical Company
Inducted 1974
Wallace Hume Carothers (1896 – 1937) pioneered linear thermoplastic polymers as director of the Fundamental Research Laboratory for the DuPont Company from 1929 to 1937. His work developed polyamides (nylons), linear polyesters, and polyethers. Few individuals have had such a profound impact on materials science and industry as Carothers.
Carothers was born on April 27, 1896, in Burlington, Iowa. He attended Capital City Commercial College in Des Moines, Iowa, where he studied accounting and secretarial administration. He went on to the four-year Tarkio College in Missouri for a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1920. He then completed a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1924. Carothers taught at the University of Illinois and Harvard University briefly. DuPont’s Charles Stine recruited him for the new fundamental research program at DuPont in 1928. Elmer K. Bolton, Carothers’s immediate supervisor, asked him to investigate the chemistry of an acetylene polymer while searching for a high-performance synthetic rubber.
In 1930, Carothers proved that polymers are macromolecules, laying the foundation for modern polymer science. Carothers’s research team developed a substitute for rubber called neoprene, which is made with chloroprene. It was first marketed in 1930 and still has applications in hoses, shoe soles, gaskets, drive belts, wet suits, and cable jacketing. Carothers’s research team experimented with polymer fibers to replace silk, beginning with polyamides but moving on to polyester. During experimentation with polyesters, a researcher drew the polymer out into strands and noticed its silky appearance, leading to the development of polyester and nylon fibers (Nelson, Richard R. (April 1959).
Carothers published 31 papers, established general theories about polymers, and regularized the field’s terminology. In 1935, he was the first organic chemist elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Carothers contributed greatly to the most basic understanding of polymer science. He did not live to see the widespread application of his discoveries, passing at the young age of 42.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastic materials
Related Links:
Nelson, Richard R. (April 1959). “The Economics of Invention: A Survey of Literature”. The Journal of Business. 32 (2). Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 101–127. doi:10.1086/294247)
Wallace Hume Carothers autobiography, http://www.madehow.com/inventorbios/69/Wallace-Hume-Carothers.ht