Word: nylons
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...Jersey, Chile has dense fogs, which move in from the Pacific nearly every evening. Even so, some of the country's northern areas are among the most arid in the world, receiving practically no rainfall despite their moisture-laden atmosphere. Observing that the fog collected into drops on nylon lines, scientists at the Northern University of Chile in Antofagasta constructed wood and metal frames strung with vertical strands of nylon and set them up on nearby hills. As the fog was blown through the frames by the evening wind, it formed water droplets on the strands that dripped into...
Half Mile of Nylon. This sounded good to fog-conscious Wesley Bellis, research director of the New Jersey department of transportation. He set up a research group, which finally evolved a "fogbroom," a 30-in. by 48-in. aluminum frame strung with a half mile of nylon thread and rotated at 86 r.p.m. by a base-mounted motor. In a research chamber in which a prime New Jersey fog can be simulated, a row of fogbrooms substantially thinned a test fog in a minute and completely cleaned it up in five minutes...
Whole new technologies such as nylon, the first all-synthetic fiber, and neoprene, the first U.S. commercial synthetic rubber, have sprung from Du Pont's cornucopian test tubes. Last year 175 manufacturers built the tops of 12 million pairs of shoes with Du Pont's three-year-old synthetic Corfam, which is supposed to look, feel and "breathe" like natural leather. Early this year, after twelve years and $8,000,000 in research, the company invaded the rich pharmaceutical field by marketing an antiflu drug named Symmetrel, which can be taken orally as either a pill or syrup...
...Pont's troubles center in the field it dominates: man-made fibers. As the leading U.S. maker of nylon, Dacron, Orion and several other synthetics, Du Pont depends on textile companies for a third of its sales volume. But the textile industry skidded into a sharp slump this year because of excess inventory, rising imports and falling prices. And that downturn caught chemical companies in the midst of a major expansion of fiber-making plants. One result is that the wholesale price of Dacron has dropped 40% in the past year. The problem, says Copeland, "can well be with...
...Another Nylon? To rebound, Du Pont still puts its faith in its prolific test tube. Among other promising ventures, it has recently developed a cheap but strong plastic heat exchanger, a line of nylon shutters and plastic vanity tops, and a compound called Zeset that keeps wool sweaters shrinkproof and enables felt hats to retain their shape and stiffness. For the future, Du Pont researchers envision such wonders as ski jackets that grow thicker and warmer when the temperature drops, curtains that change color or covering power when the sun hits, a fiber product that will remove salt or waste...