In 1939, nylon yarn was sold to hosiery mills to make women's stockings; marking the first use of commercial yarn for apparel. The product of DuPont, Wilmington, Deleware, enabled a record number of ladies' hose to go on sale for the first time in May, 1940.
Glamour Daze...
On October 27, 1938, Charles Stine, a vice president of E. I. du Pont de Nemours, Inc., announced that nylon had been invented. He unveiled the world's first synthetic fiber not to a scientific society but to three thousand women's club members gathered at the site of the 1939 New York World's Fair for the New York Herald Tribune's Eighth Annual Forum on Current Problems. He spoke in a session entitled "We Enter the World of Tomorrow" which was keyed to the theme of the forthcoming fair, the World of Tomorrow.
In the middle of Stine's talk, he proclaimed: "To this audience . . . I am making the first announcement of a brand new chemical textile fiber. This textile fiber is the first man-made organic textile fiber prepared wholly from new materials from the mineral kingdom. I refer to the fiber produced from nylon. . . . Though wholly fabricated from such common raw materials as coal, water, and air, nylon can be fashioned into filaments as strong as steel, as fine as a spider's web, yet more elastic than any of the common natural fibers."
Cole Porter's "Anything goes" [1934]...
Times have changed And we've often rewound the clock Since the Puritans got a shock When they landed on Plymouth Rock. If today Any shock they should try to stem 'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock would land on them.
In olden days, a glimpse of stocking Was looked on as something shocking. But now, God knows, Anything goes. Good authors too who once knew better words Now only use four-letter words Writing prose. Anything goes. If driving fast cars you like, If low bars you like, If old hymns you like, If bare limbs you like, If Mae West you like, Or me undressed you like, Why, nobody will oppose. When ev'ry night the set that's smart is in- Truding in nudist parties in Studios. Anything goes.
When Missus Ned McLean (God bless her) Can get Russian reds to "yes" her, Then I suppose Anything goes. When Rockefeller still can hoard en- Ough money to let Max Gordon Produce his shows, Anything goes. The world has gone mad today And good's bad today, And black's white today, And day's night today, And that gent today You gave a cent today Once had several chateaux. When folks who still can ride in jitneys Find out Vanderbilts and Whitneys Lack baby clo'es, Anything goes.
If Sam Goldwyn can with great conviction Instruct Anna Sten in diction, Then Anna shows Anything goes. When you hear that Lady Mendl standing up Now turns a handspring landing up- On her toes, Anything goes. Just think of those shocks you've got And those knocks you've got And those blues you've got From that news you've got And those pains you've got (If any brains you've got) From those little radios. So Missus R., with all her trimmin's, Can broadcast a bed from Simmons 'Cause Franklin knows Anything goes.
- Invisible People
Today would be the birthday of Ralph Ellison, most well-known for his work The Invisible Man which opens with the famous passage, "I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess...
- Spray-on Garments?
Maybe it's a fad like the "paper dress". I don't think that popular clothiers have to be concerned at the moment. "Spray-On Clothing Could Deliver a Suit in a Can" Start-up develops fiber-laden sartorial aerosol that can be styled and worn by...
- Robert D. Maurer...optical Fiber Data Transmission
Robert D. Maurer July 20th, 1924 An "American research physicist, who with his colleagues at Corning Glass Works, Dr. Donald B. Keck and Dr. Peter Schultz invented fused silica optical waveguide - optical fiber. This was a breakthrough creating a revolution...
- Rockwool
Sounds like an oxymoron. Pretty much a thing of the past and I am sure a number of lawyers are establishing their tactics to cash in on an individual's exposure to working with rockwool. In 1897, a rock wool factory in the U.S., the Crystal Chemical...
- 71 Years Ago And Promises Of The Future
"1939’s ‘World of Tomorrow’ Shaped Our Today" by Jon Snyder April 29th, 2010 Wired The New York World’s Fair of 1939 and 1940 promised visitors they would be looking at the “World of Tomorrow.” Not everything they saw there came true,...