Polyester

Polyester emerged from a research thread that DuPont had abandoned. In the 1930s, Wallace Carothers at DuPont had explored many polymer combinations, ultimately focusing on the polyamide that became nylon. His work on polyesters had stalled—the materials melted at too low a temperature for practical fibers. The adjacent possible remained closed until British chemists found the right molecular combination.

In 1941, John Rex Whinfield and James Tennant Dickson at the Calico Printers' Association in Manchester made the breakthrough DuPont had missed. They synthesized polyethylene terephthalate (PET) by reacting ethylene glycol with terephthalic acid. This particular polyester had a high melting point—suitable for textile fibers—and could be drawn into strong, resilient filaments. They named it Terylene.

Whinfield filed a patent in July 1941, but wartime security suppressed publication until 1946. The delay shaped the material's trajectory: by the time the world learned of Terylene, Britain's textile industry was struggling to rebuild from war damage. ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) manufactured the fiber in Britain, but the larger commercial opportunity lay elsewhere.

In 1946, DuPont purchased licensing rights from ICI. They modified the production process, using dimethyl terephthalate instead of terephthalic acid, which proved more efficient at scale. DuPont introduced their version as Dacron in 1953, and the polyester era began.

The cascade from PET extends far beyond textiles. The same material, in rigid rather than fiber form, became the dominant plastic for beverage bottles in the 1980s. PET bottles replaced glass for carbonated drinks because they were lighter, safer, and cheaper. The material also found applications in video and audio tape, food packaging, and medical devices.

Polyester fibers transformed clothing economics. Unlike cotton, which requires vast agricultural resources, or wool, which depends on animal husbandry, polyester could be manufactured anywhere with access to petroleum feedstocks. The fabric was durable, wrinkle-resistant, and cheap. By the 1970s, polyester suits had become emblematic of democratized fashion—and also of its excesses, as the decade's synthetic fabrics aged poorly.

The path from Manchester in 1941 to global ubiquity illustrates how the adjacent possible creates timing dependencies. Carothers at DuPont had the chemistry but chose different molecules. Whinfield and Dickson had the insight but lacked the manufacturing base. DuPont had the scale but needed British intellectual property. The material required all three contributions to become what it is today: one of the most produced synthetic polymers on Earth, present in everything from clothing to bottles to construction materials.