Q 01/05

DuPont made 'nylon' a household word, yet deliberately never did what with the name?

A) Printed it on the packaging

B) Registered it as a trademark

C) Used it in its advertising

D) Translated it for export markets

Answer · why

B) Registered it as a trademark

Registered it as a trademark: DuPont chose to launch 'nylon' as a generic word for the whole family of materials, which is why rival makers could late...

Q 02/05

Which earlier cellulose-based DuPont fibre was an important precursor to nylon?

A) Rayon

B) Orlon

C) Lycra

D) Dacron

Answer · why

A) Rayon

DuPont's experience with rayon fed directly into how it developed and marketed nylon over an eleven-year programme from 1927 to 1938.

Q 03/05

Why did DuPont, America's only nylon maker, begin licensing rivals in 1951?

A) To raise cash for new fibres

B) To head off an antitrust suit

C) To get round a factory strike

D) To settle a patent dispute

Answer · why

B) To head off an antitrust suit

To head off an antitrust suit, and partly to meet demand it could not satisfy alone, DuPont licensed the Chemstrand Corporation to make nylon, and mor...

Q 04/05

Nylon is famous for stockings, but in which humbler product did it debut in 1938?

A) Fishing line

B) Sewing thread

C) Racket strings

D) Toothbrush bristles

Answer · why

D) Toothbrush bristles

Toothbrush bristles: Dr. West's Miracle-Tuft brush of 1938 swapped imported hog hair for DuPont's new filament, well before any nylon stockings reache...

Q 05/05

Nylon stockings first went on sale in a single city in October 1939, where shoppers had to show what?

A) A ration book

B) A worn-out silk pair

C) Proof they lived locally

D) A newspaper coupon

Answer · why

C) Proof they lived locally

Proof they lived locally kept the 4,000 trial pairs in the one city, and the rest of the country had to wait until May 1940.