Game Changers: The Biggest Inventions From Dow and DuPont

For more than a century, DuPont and Dow Chemical have given the world products that have changed our lives in ways we couldn’t have imagined. In 2017, the companies merged, and eventually spun off DuPont as a subsidiary. They’ll never be beloved—too many harmful toxins and lawsuits for that—but it’s impossible to deny their game-changing advances. Here are a few of the biggest inventions from Dow and DuPont.

Kevlar

DuPont has saved countless lives with one of its super-plastics: Kevlar. A chemist discovered it in the 1960s as a lightweight substitute for steel bracing in tires. But it’s become popularly used as bullet-stopping body armor for police officers.

Nylon

DuPont’s Wallace H. Carothers put together air, water, coal, and petroleum and came up with nylon, one of the most versatile materials the world has ever seen. The silk alternative was first put to use in women’s nylons, but it was quickly implemented for the war effort. The troops were able to use nylon ropes, parachutes, and other supplies. Today, nylon is responsible for seatbelts, dental floss, umbrellas, nets, sneakers, tires, pipes, and many other products.

Styrofoam

People use blue Styrofoam for building insulation. The white kind has launched a billion craft projects, and is likely the foundation for your front-door wreath. Dow Chemical filed its patent for foamed polystyrene in 1947.

Spandex

In the 1950s, a DuPont chemist discovered a fiber that could stretch up to at least five times its original length and snap right back. He gave it an acronym for “expands,” and women began to breathe easier in their girdles. Marketed as Lycra, spandex blends are in far more of your clothes than you realize.

Artificial Turf

One of the biggest inventions from Dow Chemical was a cure for gardening. Their plastic grass now blankets sports stadiums and arenas, schoolyards and backyards, and mini golf courses and luau parties. Made up of layers that include short absorbers, polyurethane backing, infill granules, and an upper layer of yarn, AstroTurf was first installed in the Astrodome in 1966. Over the years, it’s covered homes, cars, furniture, and shoes.