1. The substance Chardonnet spilled in 1878 was collodion. What was the product he perfected six years later?

2. What polyamide, shelved by organic chemist Wallace Carothers early in the 1930s as being of no particular interest, was later playfully stretched along the lab corridor by some chemists in his lab and only then recognized as having special, unique, useful properties?

By early 1920 DuPont had secured the American rights to produce artificial silk from the French firm that held Chardonnet’s patents.

Nylon, introduced in 1938, was the world’s first true synthetic fiber created wholly out of laboratory chemicals. It was strong, durable and lightweight and ultimately proved very versatile. In 1940, when it was first marketed, nylon was finely spun and targeted as a replacement for silk in women’s hosiery, but it later proved effective in a variety of other uses from lingerie to tire cordage. Nylon has since been superceded in many uses by more modern synthetic materials some of which were also discovered 'by accident.'