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Invention Mysteries TM
Self-syndicated weekly newspaper column

It was quite a year for
this 'mother of invention'

By Paul Niemann

[MAY 8, 2003]  The year was 1965. A half gallon of milk cost just 53 cents, delivered to your front door. Miniskirts were in fashion, Sonny and Cher's "I Got You, Babe" was a hit song, and "Lassie" was one of the most popular shows on TV. The Pillsbury Doughboy made his debut that year, and baseball was played inside the Houston Astrodome for the first time -- on natural grass. The Vietnam War continued, as did the war protests, and Martin Luther King Jr. led marches to protest unfair voter-registration rules of the day. Lyndon Johnson was president.

The year 1965 was also the year that your humble columnist was born. More importantly, though, 1965 was the year that a chemical engineer named Stephanie Kwolek accidentally invented what became known as KevlarŪ.

Working for DuPont in 1965, Ms. Kwolek's boss had asked her to develop some new synthetic polymers. Each day she would mix different combinations of liquid crystals in an attempt to produce new types of fibers. One day something different happened, when she came up with a solution that was cloudy like thick milk, unlike other liquid crystals that are transparent and clear.

When she asked the man in charge of spinning the polymers to run it through the spinneret, which is used to make synthetic fibers, he initially refused because he thought the new solution would plug up the device. After three days of trying to convince him to test it, he finally relented. The brand new "aramid" polymer that she had just invented was a stiff, lightweight material that was five times stronger than steel, and when she baked it, it became even stiffer. The resulting product, Kevlar, is used in bulletproof vests, which have saved the lives of more than 2,000 police officers since the material was introduced for sale six years later.

Stephanie Kwolek's career as a chemical engineer almost came about by accident, too, according to the Lemelson Center at the Smithsonian Institution. "I did not start out to be a chemist. As a child, I thought that I might be a fashion designer," Stephanie recalls.

 

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Stephanie's father had helped her develop an interest in science, but it was her mother who fueled her passion for fashion. As a little girl, Stephanie spent a lot of time sewing and drawing various types of clothing. After college, she went to work for DuPont with plans to stay only until she could raise enough money to go to medical school. It was by pure coincidence that the group she joined at DuPont was the textile lab, which was devoted to working with textiles and fibers.

Today, in addition to being used in bulletproof vests, Kevlar is used to make items as diverse as crash helmets, skis and radial tires, and it's also strong enough that it's used in aerospace applications.

For her work, Kwolek has been honored by numerous police organizations nationwide, and in 1995 she became only the fourth woman to be elected to the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In 1999 she won the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award. Kwolek isn't a one-hit wonder, though, as her name appears on 16 additional patents issued between 1961 and 1986.

Today she consults with DuPont and travels the world speaking to other scientists about her work. She also mentors young students in science, especially young women.

[Paul Niemann]

Paul Niemann is a contributing author to Inventors' Digest magazine, and he also runs MarketLaunchers.com, helping people in the marketing of their new product ideas. He can be reached at niemann7@aol.com.

Last week's column in LDN: "Would Mark Twain have preferred to be an inventor rather than a writer?"

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