Wallace Carothers

Life & Legacy

Wallace Hume Carothers (; April 27, 1896 – April 29, 1937) was an American chemist, inventor, and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont, who was credited with the invention of nylon.
Carothers was a group leader at the DuPont Experimental Station laboratory, near Wilmington, Delaware, where most polymer research was done. Carothers was an organic chemist who, in addition to first developing nylon, also helped lay the groundwork for neoprene. After receiving his PhD, he taught at several universities before he was hired by DuPont to work on fundamental research.
He married Helen Sweetman on February 21, 1936. Carothers had been troubled by periods of depression since his youth. Despite his success with nylon, he felt that he had not accomplished much and had run out of ideas. His unhappiness was exacerbated by the death of his sister, and on April 28, 1937, he committed suicide by drinking potassium cyanide, sixteen months before the public announcement of nylon's discovery on October 27, 1938. His daughter, Jane, was born on November 27, 1937.