In the late 1920s, the DuPont Research Lab launched a major effort in polymer chemistry—and by the 1930s that effort was generating blockbusters. In 1934, four years after discovering Neoprene, the first all-synthetic rubber, chemist Wallace H. Carothers developed the superstrong filament he called Fiber 66: nylon. DuPont announced nylon hosiery in October, 1938, prompting a New York Times editorial writer to question whether women would be content with stockings that lasted for eternity. DuPont eventually earned upwards of $25 billion from nylon, which is now used for everything from parachute fabric to bottle-brush bristles. But Carothers never witnessed its success—or its launch. In April, 1937, the 41-year-old former Harvard chemistry instructor, feeling he had deserted pure science, poisoned himself with cyanide.