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        It’s funny which inventions seemingly revolutionize our lives once they hit the market, and we wonder how we managed to live without them.  In an attempt to find a substitute for silk, DuPont Company researchers studied chains of molecules called polymers.  By pulling a heated rod through a beaker containing carbon and alcohol based molecules, they found the mixture stretched at room temperature and had a silky texture.  This work culminated in the production of nylon and marked a new era in synthetic fibers.  It was a man named Charles Stine, the director of DuPont’s Chemical Department in 1926, that had taken the first step down a very long road to nylon by submitting a memorandum desiring to undertake such research.  Building a new laboratory, Stine began to look for twenty five scientists to fill it.  By the end of the year he had eight men at work on one aspect of research.  However, the organic research is where he had planned to spend nearly half of his budget and needed fifteen men, but was only successful in hiring one.  That one, profoundly brilliant man, was Wallace Carothers.  Carothers has been described as a well rounded person with numerous talents and interests in art, sports, politics and music, but appeared to be a stereotypical oddball genius only to those who did not know him well... 

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