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Title: Interview with Martin E. Cupery and Harry B. Dykstra, 2 August 1978 [audio] (part 1)
Date(s): 1978-08-02
Contributor(s): Strange, Adeline Bassett Cook, 1917-2004 (Interviewer), Cupery, Martin E. (Martin Eli), 1901-1996 (Interviewee), Dykstra, Harold Ben, 1902-1986 (Interviewee)
Description: Martin E. Cupery and Harry B. Dykstra have a conversation with Cookie Strange. They primarily discuss their research with synthetic polymers, the discovery of Nylon, and "Purity Hall" at the DuPont Experimental Station. They also talk about Wallace Carothers's overall demeanor and how his gentleness and kindness made him easy to be around. Part 1.
Collection ID: Oral history interviews on Wallace Carothers (Accession 1994.311)
Hagley ID: AUD_1994311_B01_ID03
Collection: Oral history interviews on Wallace Carothers

Title: Interview with Martin E. Cupery and Harry B. Dykstra, 2 August 1978 [audio] (part 2)
Date(s): 1978-08-02
Contributor(s): Strange, Adeline Bassett Cook, 1917-2004 (Interviewer), Cupery, Martin E. (Martin Eli), 1901-1996 (Interviewee), Dykstra, Harold Ben, 1902-1986 (Interviewee)
Description: Martin E. Cupery and Harry B. Dykstra have a conversation with Cookie Strange. They primarily discuss their research with synthetic polymers, the discovery of Nylon, and "Purity Hall" at the DuPont Experimental Station. They also talk about Wallace Carothers's overall demeanor and how his gentleness and kindness made him easy to be around. Part 2.
Collection ID: Oral history interviews on Wallace Carothers (Accession 1994.311)
Hagley ID: AUD_1994311_B01_ID04
Collection: Oral history interviews on Wallace Carothers

Title: Interview with Martin E. Cupery and Harry B. Dykstra, 2 August 1978 [transcript]
Date(s): 1978-08-02
Description: Martin E. Cupery and Harry B. Dykstra have a conversation with Cookie Strange. They discuss their research with super polymers, the discovery of Nylon, and the DuPont Experimental Station. They also talk about Wallace Carothers's overall demeanor and how his gentleness and kindness made him easy to be around.
Collection ID: Carothers Oral History Project (Accession 1985)
Hagley ID: MSS_1985_01_01_03
Collection: Oral history interviews on Wallace Carothers

Title: Interview with Ted Merriman, 2015 December 4
Date(s): 2015-12-04
Contributor(s): Merriman, Ted (interviewee), Smith, John K. (John Kenly), 1951- (interviewer), Oates, Mike (videographer), 302 Stories, Inc. (production company), Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation (originator)
Description: After describing his education and early work at the DuPont Savannah River plant, Merriman describes his first project at the Pioneering Laboratory at DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington in 1969 working on new uses for ceramic aluminum oxide fiber PRD-29. Merriman then details his role in developing a pulped form of Kevlar fiber that made it suitable for use in automobile brake lining in the late 1970s, after it was discovered that the standard material, asbestos fiber, caused a...
Show moreAfter describing his education and early work at the DuPont Savannah River plant, Merriman describes his first project at the Pioneering Laboratory at DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington in 1969 working on new uses for ceramic aluminum oxide fiber PRD-29. Merriman then details his role in developing a pulped form of Kevlar fiber that made it suitable for use in automobile brake lining in the late 1970s, after it was discovered that the standard material, asbestos fiber, caused a particular form of lung cancer. Merriman developed a process that produced Kevlar fluff using conventional paper-making equipment. Because Kevlar cost about one hundred times as much as asbestos, brake linings had to be redesigned to use very small amounts of it. Working with brake pad manufacturers, Merriman succeeded in producing a commercially viable Kevlar brake pads that had good wear characteristics and were quieter than other types. Brake lining became a significant market for Kevlar. Merriman also describes the extensive testing on Kevlar that DuPont performed at its toxicology facility, the Haskell Laboratory, to ensure that Kevlar did not have adverse health effects.
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Collection ID: History of Kevlar oral history interviews (Accession 2014.249)
Hagley ID: 2014249_20151204_Merriman
Collection: History of Kevlar oral history interviews

Title: Interview with Wesley Memeger, Jr., 2014 August 19
Date(s): 2014-08-19
Contributor(s): Memeger, Wesley, Jr. (interviewee), Smith, John K. (John Kenly), 1951- (interviewer), Oates, Mike (videographer), 302 Stories, Inc. (production company), Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation (originator)
Description: Wesley Memeger, Jr. details his contribution to streamlining the synthesis of Kevlar, which allowed the timely start-up of the first commercial scale Kevlar plant. In the laboratory, the polymer for Kevlar had previously been prepared by polymerizing para-phenylene diamine and terephthaloyl chloride in a mixture of two solvents, HMPA (hexamethylphosphoramide) and NMP (N-methylpyrrolidinone). Memeger found that a polymer with satisfactory molecular weight could be made using only HMPA, a...
Show moreWesley Memeger, Jr. details his contribution to streamlining the synthesis of Kevlar, which allowed the timely start-up of the first commercial scale Kevlar plant. In the laboratory, the polymer for Kevlar had previously been prepared by polymerizing para-phenylene diamine and terephthaloyl chloride in a mixture of two solvents, HMPA (hexamethylphosphoramide) and NMP (N-methylpyrrolidinone). Memeger found that a polymer with satisfactory molecular weight could be made using only HMPA, a discovery which made the preparation of Kevlar more commercially viable, as it allowed for a continuous polymerizer in a single solvent system.

Memeger recounts that DuPont used HMPA as the solvent for Kevlar production in the early 1970s, but after toxicology tests conducted at the company's Haskell Laboratory raised doubts about the safety of the solvent, DuPont replaced HMPA with NMP and calcium chloride. Memeger describes his subsequent work at DuPont investigating melt processible polymers, which share some properties with Kevlar but lack equivalent chemical and thermal stability, as well as his work on ring opening routes to polymers with novel properties. An accomplished artist, Memeger continues to be impressed by the elegance and simplicity of the Kevlar polymer that produces such remarkable properties.
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Collection ID: History of Kevlar oral history interviews (Accession 2014.249)
Hagley ID: 2014249_20140819_Memeger
Collection: History of Kevlar oral history interviews

Title: Interview with William "Bill" Mapel, July 1978 [audio]
Date(s): 1978
Description: Interviewer Adeline Bassett Cook Strange (also known as A.B.C Strange or Cookie) recounts her conversations with William "Bill" Mapel and his wife, Evelyn Raines Mapel. Strange says Mr. Mapel was hesitant to talk about Carothers, and she believes he thought he would be breaking Carothers's confidence. Mapel described Carothers as the closest friend he ever had, and despite Carothers's reserved demeanor, there was an "aura" around him at DuPont and in Wilmington society. Overall, Strange...
Show moreInterviewer Adeline Bassett Cook Strange (also known as A.B.C Strange or Cookie) recounts her conversations with William "Bill" Mapel and his wife, Evelyn Raines Mapel. Strange says Mr. Mapel was hesitant to talk about Carothers, and she believes he thought he would be breaking Carothers's confidence. Mapel described Carothers as the closest friend he ever had, and despite Carothers's reserved demeanor, there was an "aura" around him at DuPont and in Wilmington society. Overall, Strange believes that much of Carothers's life was controlled by Mapel's "aggressive interests and kindness," and that Carothers was amenable to this because of his insecurities.
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Collection ID: Oral history interviews on Wallace Carothers (Accession 1994.311)
Hagley ID: AUD_1994311_B01_ID02
Collection: Oral history interviews on Wallace Carothers

Title: Interview with William "Bill" Mapel, July 1978 [transcript]
Date(s): 1978
Contributor(s): Strange, Adeline Bassett Cook, 1917-2004 (Interviewer), Mapel, William, 1902-1984 (Interviewee)
Description: Interviewer Adeline Bassett Cook Strange (also known as A.B.C Strange or Cookie) recounts her conversations with William "Bill" Mapel and his wife, Evelyn Raines Mapel. Strange says Mr. Mapel was hesitant to talk about Carothers, and she believes he thought he would be breaking Carothers's confidence. Mapel described Carothers as the closest friend he ever had, and despite Carothers's reserved demeanor, there was an "aura" around him at DuPont and in Wilmington society. Overall, Strange...
Show moreInterviewer Adeline Bassett Cook Strange (also known as A.B.C Strange or Cookie) recounts her conversations with William "Bill" Mapel and his wife, Evelyn Raines Mapel. Strange says Mr. Mapel was hesitant to talk about Carothers, and she believes he thought he would be breaking Carothers's confidence. Mapel described Carothers as the closest friend he ever had, and despite Carothers's reserved demeanor, there was an "aura" around him at DuPont and in Wilmington society. Overall, Strange believes that much of Carothers's life was controlled by Mapel's "aggressive interests and kindness," and that Carothers was amenable to this because of his insecurities.
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Collection ID: Carothers Oral History Project (Accession 1985)
Hagley ID: MSS_1985_01_01_02
Collection: Oral history interviews on Wallace Carothers

Title: Judging dyed skeins
Date(s): 1945
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator)
Description: Judging dyed skeins for strength and shade of the dye under north light in the Standardization Lab of the Technical Laboratory, Dyestuffs Division of the DuPont Company.
Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_3008
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

Title: Julian Hill recreating synthesis of first completely synthetic fiber
Date(s): 1941
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator)
Description: Probably the most dramatic moment in DuPont research history is re-enacted above-the birth of the first completely synthetic fiber, impractical for commercial use but true forerunner of nylon itself. Here chemist Julian Hill shows how he pulled molten sample of material from a laboratory test tube at the company's Experimental Station near Wilmington, Delaware. The molasses-like mass stuck to the glass stirring rod and was drawn out into a thin fiber.
Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_1154
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

Title: K. Grace Fahey demonstrating Quilon
Date(s): 1955
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator)
Description: Miss K. Grace Fahey, receptionist, under direction of Dr. Edward O. Hermann, research chemist, pours methylene blue dye over paper treated with Quilon stearato chromic chloride to demonstrate water repellency of the compound, developed by the Grasselli Chemicals Department of the DuPont Company. The upper part of the paper, treated with Quilon, a water soluble repellant, remains unstained while the untreated lower potion absorbs the dye. The demonstration was shown to visitors to the...
Show moreMiss K. Grace Fahey, receptionist, under direction of Dr. Edward O. Hermann, research chemist, pours methylene blue dye over paper treated with Quilon stearato chromic chloride to demonstrate water repellency of the compound, developed by the Grasselli Chemicals Department of the DuPont Company. The upper part of the paper, treated with Quilon, a water soluble repellant, remains unstained while the untreated lower potion absorbs the dye. The demonstration was shown to visitors to the dedication of the new addition to the company's Experimental Station as part of the exhibit in the Grasselli laboratories.
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Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_2672
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

Title: Lab assistant taking optical activity measurements with polarimeter
Date(s): 1955
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator)
Description: By measuring the angle through which a beam of plane polarized light is rotated, the polarimeter saves a great amount of time in analytical procedures. In this picture, a laboratory assistant records results of test on the polarimeter at the Experimental Station.
Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_4437
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

Title: Lab assistant taking optical activity measurements with polarimeter
Date(s): 1945
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator), Pix, Inc. (photographer)
Description: By measuring the angle through which a beam of plane polarized light is rotated, the polarimeter saves a great amount of time in analytical procedures. In this picture, a laboratory assistant records results of test on the polarimeter at the Experimental Station.
Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_4464
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

Title: Lab consultations at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company laboratories
Date(s): 1955
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator)
Description: Through regular visits to DuPont Company labs some 60 university scientists, acting as consultants, give DuPont chemists the benefit of their broad experience. Shown here, left, is Professor Roger Adams of the University of Illinois.
Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_4475
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

Title: Laboratory employees at Experimental Station
Date(s): 1955
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator)
Description: This photograph illustrates the wide variety of training and skill necessary to carry out research efficiently on the large scale on which it is conducted at DuPont's Experimental Station. Many specialists, in addition to research chemists, standing by the bench, have a part to play. For example, in the picture, starting with the front row, from the left are: Research supervisor, stenographer, laboratory assistant, analytical chemist, file clerk, stores foreman, draftsman, safety inspector,...
Show moreThis photograph illustrates the wide variety of training and skill necessary to carry out research efficiently on the large scale on which it is conducted at DuPont's Experimental Station. Many specialists, in addition to research chemists, standing by the bench, have a part to play. For example, in the picture, starting with the front row, from the left are: Research supervisor, stenographer, laboratory assistant, analytical chemist, file clerk, stores foreman, draftsman, safety inspector, optics technologist, physical test operator, high pressure laboratory operator, special service laboratory operator, literature searcher, product development chemist, librarian, patent chemist, glass blower, instrument maker, sheet metal worker, carpenter, electrician, chemists, welder.
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Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_4447
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

Title: Laboratory setup for determining sulfur in liquid
Date(s): 1955
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator)
Description: Assemblies of flasks, bubbler absorption tubes and enclosed lamps make possible the burning of liquid samples and the collection of the gases formed. Here a chemist and laboratory assistant at the Experimental Station operate apparatus for determining sulfur in liquid.
Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_4470
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

Title: Lavoisier Awards Opener
Date(s): 1999
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (spn)
Description: Begins with montage of video and text. Includes interview segments from Art Anderson, Jack Kreuz and Ted Koch. Introduction of new award recipients.
Collection ID: DuPont Company Textile Fabrics Department videotapes, photographs, slides and promotions (Accession 2011.320)
Hagley ID: VID_2011320_B09_ID03
Collection: DuPont Company Textile Fabrics Department videotapes

Title: Lavoisier Medal Award Ceremony Highlights
Date(s): 1990
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (spn)
Description: Edited program of highlights from the 1990 Lavoisier Award Ceremony from 1990. Includes segment from Chairman of DuPont Ed Woolard's speech. Also shows Al McGlauchlin, Senior VP of Technology handing out awards for recipients and family members. Recipients included Max J. Becktold, Elmer Kaiser Bolton, Wallace H. Carothers, William H. Church, Thomas H. Chilton, Abraham B. Cohen, Lawrence B. Curtis, Ralph Kingsley Iler, Louis Plambeck Jr., Charles W. Todd and N.C. Wyeth.
Collection ID: DuPont Company Textile Fabrics Department videotapes, photographs, slides and promotions (Accession 2011.320)
Hagley ID: VID_2011320_B09_ID01
Collection: DuPont Company Textile Fabrics Department videotapes

Title: Lifting experimental hood ornaments from a copper plating tank
Date(s): 1955
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator)
Description: Better plating on autos is one result of work done in the Electrochemicals Department Sales Technical Laboratory at Niagara Falls, New York. Here, a DuPont chemist lifts experimental hood ornaments from a copper plating tank. Copper is used as a base for the subsequent plating of nickel and then chrome.
Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_3387
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

Title: Member of the staff of the Eastern Laboratory of the DuPont Company's Explosives Department
Date(s): 1945
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator)
Description: Shown at his laboratory bench is a member of the staff of the Eastern Laboratory of the DuPont Company's Explosives Department at Gibbstown, New Jersey. Established in 1902, this was the first of DuPont's research laboratories and is believed to represent the earliest organized research effort in the American Chemical industry. Its staff, which now numbers more than 200 men and women, has contributed many important developments in the field of industrial and military explosives. The...
Show moreShown at his laboratory bench is a member of the staff of the Eastern Laboratory of the DuPont Company's Explosives Department at Gibbstown, New Jersey. Established in 1902, this was the first of DuPont's research laboratories and is believed to represent the earliest organized research effort in the American Chemical industry. Its staff, which now numbers more than 200 men and women, has contributed many important developments in the field of industrial and military explosives. The laboratory has also served as a training ground for men who have helped staff some of the company's other research laboratories that today total more than 30.
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Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_0665
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

Title: Microbalance in Chemical Department's Analytical Laboratory
Date(s): 1955
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator)
Description: The micro balance, shown here in the Chemical Department's Analytical Laboratory at DuPont's Experimental Station is one of the essential tools of modern chemistry, which demands a high degree of measuring accuracy. The human hair eight inches long-almost invisible on the balance pan-could be cut into more than 1500 pieces and each piece could be weighed accurately on this sensitive balance.
Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_4468
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

Title: Nobel prize winner Professor Peter Debye addresses a group of DuPont scientists
Date(s): 1955
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator)
Description: Nobel prize winner Professor Peter Debye of Cornell University, a DuPont consultant, addresses a group of DuPont scientists at the company's Experimental Station. Professor Debye is one of a large number of outstanding university scientists who serve in a consulting capacity at the company's research divisions.
Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_4471
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

Title: The Nylon Rope Trick demonstrated by Dr. Paul W. Morgan
Date(s): 1945
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator)
Description: Dr. Paul W. Morgan of DuPont's Textile Fibers Pioneering Research Laboratory demonstrates the making of nylon, instantaneously, at room temperature, without any apparatus other than a drinking glass, a small jar or beaker. Practical commercial manufacture of nylon requires high temperatures, precision controls and complex and expensive equipment. Dr. Morgan shows here how a nylon rope can be drawn from a beaker when a solution of a fast reacting diacid chloride in a water immiscible solvent...
Show moreDr. Paul W. Morgan of DuPont's Textile Fibers Pioneering Research Laboratory demonstrates the making of nylon, instantaneously, at room temperature, without any apparatus other than a drinking glass, a small jar or beaker. Practical commercial manufacture of nylon requires high temperatures, precision controls and complex and expensive equipment. Dr. Morgan shows here how a nylon rope can be drawn from a beaker when a solution of a fast reacting diacid chloride in a water immiscible solvent is brought into contact with an aqueous solution of an aliphatic diamine. A film of high polymer forms where the two solutions meet which is called the interface. The film can then be pulled from the interface immediately and as if by magic, it is continuously replaced to form a long endless cord of polyamide-hence the nylon rope trick. This particular method of making nylon is an invaluable laboratory tool to researchers and teachers in chemistry because permits polymeric experimentation which are both inexpensive and uncomplicated.
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Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_1197
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

Title: Observing a catalytic reaction
Date(s): 1955
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator)
Description: The catalytic reaction being observed by this DuPont scientist is part of the Electrochemicals Department's long range research program. One dramatic result of this type of research was a new process for making vinyl acetate, a polymer intermediate important in the manufacture of polyvinyl acetate resin emulsion adhesives and paints.
Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_2700
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

Title: Organic chemistry research laboratory at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Experimental Station
Date(s): 1955
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator)
Description: The research lab is the heart of the modern chemical industry. Large sums of money are annually spent for research. Many trained men are employed. The chemical operations demand the utmost care and are frequently quite complex. This image shows a typical set up in an organic research lab at the Experimental Station. The apparatus shown here is designed for carrying out distillations whereby various organic materials are separated and purified.
Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_4456
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

Title: Perfume for rubber
Date(s): 1948-06
Contributor(s): E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (originator)
Description: Aromatic chemist sniffs a sample. If suitable deodorant is added in right amount, odor of rubber will be masked.
Collection ID: DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341)
Hagley ID: 1972341_0656
Collection: DuPont Product Information photographs

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