Close-up view of two hot relaxing plates on a drawing machine used at the DuPont plant in Seaford, Delaware during the early stages of synthetic fiber production and research. The plate on the left, labelled "Electric,"…

Two views of hot relaxing plates on a drawing machine used at the DuPont plant in Seaford, Delaware during the early stages of synthetic fiber production and research. The plate on the left was electric-heated and the…

Group photograph of staff responsible for the development and manufacture of the "Type 9" textile at the DuPont plant in Martinsville, Virginia. Team supervisor Joseph X. Labovsky is seated at the center of the…

General view of a melt viscometer used during the early stages of nylon production and research at the DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware. This machine was used to measure the melt viscosity and…

Close-up view of the modified feed brake assembly on a nylon staple cutter used at the DuPont plant in Seaford, Delaware during the early stages of nylon production and research.

Three views of a nylon drawing machine and creel (a rack holding bobbins or spools for spinning) used at the DuPont plant in Seaford, Delaware during the early stages of nylon production and research.

General view of an oxygen analyzer used to measure the contents of purified nitrogen during the early stages of nylon production and research at the DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware. To protect hot…

Portrait of DuPont chemist Joseph X. Labovsky (1912-2013), taken at the DuPont pilot plant in Seaford, Delaware during the early stages of nylon production and research.

Joseph X. Labovsky was born in Kiev, Ukraine on…

General view of a roll crimper and puller used at DuPont during the early stages of synthetic fiber production and research. Typically, such machinery was used to stretch, strengthen, and crimp textile fibers.

General view of a roll crimper used to crimp textile fibers during the early stages of synthetic fiber production and research at DuPont. As visible in this photograph, fibers entered the machine via drive pulleys and…

General view of a spinneret (front row, second from left) and assorted pack equipment, including a filter screen and gasket, used during the early stages of nylon production and research at DuPont. During production, a…

General view of the second floor of the Spinning Room during the early stages of nylon production and research at the DuPont pilot plant in Wilmington, Delaware. Visible on the left-hand side of the photograph are steam…

Two views of staple crimpers used at DuPont during the early stages of synthetic fiber production and research. During production, a tow (an untwisted bundle of continuous filaments) was fed between two serrated rolls…

Two close-up views of an electric-heated grid and steam-spinning grid and block assembly used during the early stages of synthetic fiber production and research at DuPont. The photographs are captioned "Figure 1" and…

Close-up view of DuPont employee Richard L. Huber adjusting the steam chimney on a five-position windup and spinning machine at the DuPont pilot plant in Wilmington, Delaware during the early stages of nylon production…

Two views of synthetic fiber samples produced at the DuPont Experimental Station during the early stages of nylon production and research. The samples are identified, from left, as "Acele," Fiber 66, and Viscose Rayon…

Close-up view of a tandem hot-pin hot-plate draw system used at DuPont during the early stages of synthetic fiber production and research. The photograph has been marked with several hand-drawn lines to depict the…

General view of a two-position vertical windup machine used during the early stages of nylon production and research at the DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware.

General view of Violet Grenda inspecting nylon yarn at an unidentified DuPont facility during the early stages of nylon production and research.

Close-up view of the wrap scraper blade on a drawing machine used at the DuPont plant in Seaford, Delaware during the early stages of nylon production and research.

General view of assorted machinery, including a holding tank, evaporator, and auxiliary steam boiler, used for batch wise production and storage of low dew point melt during the early stages of synthetic fiber…

Two views of a booster pump shaft used during the early stages of synthetic fiber production and research at DuPont. In the top image, an accumulation of polymer is visible on the shaft, while agitators are wrapped…

General view of a continuous denier meter used to measure the denier, or thickness, of filaments during the early stages of synthetic fiber production and research at DuPont. The spool of yarn to be measured is visible…

General view of component parts, including a holding tank, flash tube, spinner, and finisher, of a continuous polymerizer used during the early stages of synthetic fiber production and research at DuPont.

General view of component parts, including a holding tank, flash tube, condenser, and finisher, of a continuous polymerizer used during the early stages of synthetic fiber production and research at DuPont. The…