Polyester's Emergence into the Public

          Since it was previously mentioned that Carothers discovered that alcohols and carboxyl acids could be combined to form fibers, the question remains as to how polyester was made public. Well, the truth is, Carothers stopped doing research on polyester when he discovered nylon. So, a few British scientists - J.R. Whinfield, J.T. Dickson, W.K. Birtwhistle, and C.G. Ritchie - continued where Carothers left off. In 1941, they created Terylene and DuPont soon bought the legal rights for it from the scientists in 1946, and named it Dacron.

          In 1951, polyester was introduced to America as a miracle fiber that could be worn for 68 days straight without ironing, and still look presentable. Soon after that, in 1958, another polyester fiber called Kodel was developed by Eastman Chemical Products, INC. The market for polyester kept getting bigger. Since it was inexpensive and durable, numerous mills were created in order to produce polyester clothes. People were going crazy over polyester! However, the craze died down in the 1970s, and sales went down. Although, polyester is simply thought of as a cheap fiber today, its image is changing since polyester luxury fibers are starting to be made.
A more in-depth look at the history of polyester and its emergence can be found by clicking here.
Note: The link is a .pdf file