43 Facts About Wallace Carothers

Wallace Hume Carothers was an American chemist, inventor, and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont, who was credited with the invention of nylon.

Wallace Carothers was an organic chemist who, in addition to first developing nylon, helped lay the groundwork for neoprene.

Wallace Carothers had been troubled by periods of depression since his youth.

Wallace Carothers's unhappiness was exacerbated by the death of his sister, and on April 28,1937, he committed suicide by drinking potassium cyanide.

Wallace Carothers's daughter, Jane, was born on November 27,1937.

Wallace Carothers was born on April 27,1896, in Burlington, Iowa, to Ira and Mary Evalina Wallace Carothers.

Wallace Carothers had one brother and two sisters: John, Isobel and Elizabeth.

Wallace Carothers attended public school in Des Moines, Iowa, where he was known as a conscientious student.

Wallace Carothers so excelled in chemistry that before graduation he was made a chemistry instructor and studied for as well as taught the senior course when Pardee left to become chairman of the chemistry department at the University of South Dakota.

Wallace Carothers graduated from Tarkio in 1920 at the age of 24 with a bachelor of science degree.

Wallace Carothers went back to the University of Illinois to study for his Ph.

Wallace Carothers specialized in organic chemistry and minored in physical chemistry and mathematics.

Wallace Carothers was initiated into Alpha Chi Sigma in 1926 as a member of Zeta Chapter at the University of Illinois.

In 1926, Wallace Carothers moved to Harvard University, where he was again an instructor in organic chemistry.

Wallace Carothers was never content to follow the beaten path or to accept the usual interpretations of organic reactions.

Wallace Carothers's first thinking about polymerization and the structure of substances of high molecular weight began while he was at Harvard.

Wallace Carothers traveled to Wilmington, Delaware, to discuss the possibility of being in charge of organic chemistry at the new DuPont laboratory for fundamental research.

Wallace Carothers's salary was $500 a month as compared with only $267 at Harvard.

At Dupont Wallace Carothers was given a position in its new fundamental research program that was just recently established in Wilmington, Delaware and the company had allowed him to choose any research of his choice.

Wallace Carothers chose polymer research because the subject needed theoretic exploration and had immense commercial implications.

Wallace Carothers began working at the DuPont Experimental Station on February 6,1928.

Bolton asked Wallace Carothers to examine the chemistry of an acetylene polymer with the goal of creating synthetic rubber.

Wallace Carothers's efforts were soon met with great success when he produced a synthetic polymer with a molecular weight of about 12,000.

Wallace Carothers worked out the theory of step-growth polymerization and derived the Wallace Carothers equation which relates the average degree of polymerization to the fractional conversion of monomer into polymer.

In 1931, Wallace Carothers moved into a house in Wilmington, which became known as Whiskey Acres, with three other DuPont scientists.

Wallace Carothers was no recluse, but his depressive moods often prevented him from enjoying all the activities in which his roommates took part.

Wallace Carothers hated the public speaking that was necessary to maintain his high-profile.

In 1932, the agreement under which Wallace Carothers was hired was modified by Dr Bolton.

Wallace Carothers did not see himself as a skilled commercial researcher.

Wallace Carothers proposed that fundamental work be limited to two or three proposals, which would be consistent with DuPont's interests.

Wallace Carothers was having an affair with a married woman, Sylvia Moore, who with her husband filed for divorce in 1933.

Wallace Carothers was still seeing Sylvia Moore, who was now single, and his parents greatly disapproved of the relationship.

Wallace Carothers's research resulted in the invention of a number of new polyamides.

Wallace Carothers did not come into work, and no one knew where he was.

Wallace Carothers was found in a small psychiatric clinic, Pinel Clinic, near the famous Phipps Clinic associated with Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Shortly after his release from the clinic, Wallace Carothers returned to DuPont.

Wallace Carothers selected Dr George Graves to work with Carothers on the project.

On February 21,1936, Wallace Carothers married Helen Sweetman, whom he had been dating since 1934.

From that point on, Wallace Carothers was not expected to perform any real work at the Experimental Station.

Wallace Carothers began living in Whiskey Acres again, after his wife had agreed with Dr Appel that she was not strong enough to watch over Carothers.

Wallace and Helen Carothers traveled to Chicago to attend her funeral and then to Des Moines for her burial.

Wallace Carothers still traveled to Philadelphia to visit his psychiatrist, Dr Appel, who told a friend of Carothers that he thought suicide was the likely outcome of Carothers' case.

Wallace Carothers was posthumously inducted into the Alpha Chi Sigma Hall of Fame in 1982.