Wallace Hume Carothers was born in 27th of April in 1896, in the town of Lowe and was the oldest of 4 sisters. After High School, Wallace studied accounting at Capital City Commercial College where his father worked as a teacher and administrator. After Capital City Wallace went to Tarkio College in Missouri where he taught accounting and studied science. During the first world war Wallace was appointed head of the chemistry department in Tarkio College. He later graduated in 1920 and a year later he got his masters degree. He then started teaching at University of South Dakota and began working on the bonding in organic chemistry. He came to a realization that he enjoyed researching a lot more than teaching so he earned a PhD from the University of Illinois in 1924. After obtaining his PhD, he became an instructor at Harvard, where he started experimenting with chemical structure of polymers with high molecular weight. In 1928 DuPont Chemical Company opened a laboratory for basic research with their main goal being developing a new artificial material. With the promise of being able to pursue his own research without the burden of teaching, they lured Wallace from Harvard. He had a huge responsibility, being in charge of a whole division, but it was an opportunity he could not let slip through his fingers.
The first product he and his team created was neoprene, a synthetic rubber mainly used in wetsuits. Japan had made silk more expensive and harder for the United States to obtain so Wallace and his team needed to invent a synthetic fibre that could replace silk. In 1934 DuPont had finally produced a strong, flexible and synthetic fibre... they named it "Nylon". Wallace published over 31 papers about general theories to do with polymers. Not only did Wallace bring Nylon to the world, he also brought a new evolution for the understanding of polymers.
Wallace became a huge figure in science, and as his reputation grew, depression had set in on him. In 1936, he married Helen Sweetman, another scientist at DuPont. Months later they became pregnant with a daughter that Wallace would never meet, because in early 1937 his favourite sister passed suddenly. This loss added to his depression and three months later he committed suicide. In his honour DuPont named their research station after the great Wallace Hume Carothers, a great scientist whom we will never forget.
The first product he and his team created was neoprene, a synthetic rubber mainly used in wetsuits. Japan had made silk more expensive and harder for the United States to obtain so Wallace and his team needed to invent a synthetic fibre that could replace silk. In 1934 DuPont had finally produced a strong, flexible and synthetic fibre... they named it "Nylon". Wallace published over 31 papers about general theories to do with polymers. Not only did Wallace bring Nylon to the world, he also brought a new evolution for the understanding of polymers.
Wallace became a huge figure in science, and as his reputation grew, depression had set in on him. In 1936, he married Helen Sweetman, another scientist at DuPont. Months later they became pregnant with a daughter that Wallace would never meet, because in early 1937 his favourite sister passed suddenly. This loss added to his depression and three months later he committed suicide. In his honour DuPont named their research station after the great Wallace Hume Carothers, a great scientist whom we will never forget.