Complex Numbers

Just One Word

Today, another entry for "Journalistic Intentions"  [18+]:

Nylon

"There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?"
         -Mr. McGuire, The Graduate

If Dustin Hoffman's character had actually heeded those words (frankly, I don't remember enough about the movie to know whether he did or not), he might have found himself in trouble. Shortly after the movie was released, "just one word: plastics" started to fall out of favor.

But there was a time when nylon, and other plastics, were heralded as positive agents of change.

As with most innovations of the 20th century, this was largely driven by marketing, with a hint of racism thrown in (nylon was heralded as an alternative to silk, which came from those countries.)

I don't need to rehash the Wikipedia page   for nylon, so for facts (or near-facts) and history, you can go there. Warning: a lot of it is chemistry. You can skip that part. I did, and I have some knowledge of chemistry.

But I do want to focus on one nearly throwaway sentence from that article:

In 1946, the demand for nylon stockings could not be satisfied, which led to the Nylon riots.

The... Nylon... RIOTS?

This, I gotta learn more about.

The nylon riots were a series of disturbances at American stores created by a nylon stocking shortage.  

Anyone else spot the inherent pun there? Anyone? I'll ruin it by explaining it: they had trouble stocking stockings.

During World War II, nylon was used extensively for parachutes and other war materials, such as airplane cords and ropes and the supply of nylon consumer goods was curtailed.

I'm just going to leave this here and hopefully remember to, at some point, research the effects of the rise of synthetic fabrics on the demonization of hemp. I can't help but think there was a connection, but it's irrelevant to this discussion.

The riots occurred between August 1945 and March 1946, when the War Production Board announced that the creation of Du Pont's nylon would shift its manufacturing from wartime material to nylon stockings, at the same time launching a promotional campaign.

On the other hand, I think I have a pretty good grasp on the link between overpromising stuff in promotional campaigns, and consumer riots.

It is imperative that I add: it sounds like there was a run on stockings.

In one of the worst disturbances, in Pittsburgh, 40,000 women queued up for 13,000 pairs of stockings, leading to fights breaking out.

If only we had camera phones then. Imagine the beautiful videos that would have resulted.

It took several months before Du Pont was able to ramp up production to meet demand, but until they did many women went without nylon stockings for months.

Imagine the sheer horror (pun intended).

During World War II, Japan stopped using supplies made out of silk, and so the United States had difficulty importing silk from Japan.

Pretty sure there were other reasons why importing silk from Japan wasn't possible during WWII.

Nylon stockings became increasingly popular on the black market, and sold for up to $20 per pair.

WTF, Wikipedia. Dollar amounts are useless unless we can compare them to today's dollars. Here, I'll help: $20 in 1945 is like $335 today.

There's more at the link. Maybe you'd heard of them; I had not, and despite the very real plight of the American stocking-wearers (or, technically, stocking-not-wearers) in the mid-1940s, I had a good laugh reading the section.

I have no idea what the current status of demand for nylon stockings is. I don't see them much, but I don't go to department stores or frequent the kinds of events where people would wear stockings or hose or pantyhose or whatever. Most of the ladies I see pictures of on the internet don't seem to wear them, but that may be selection bias, as most of the ladies I see pictures of on the internet don't wear much of anything.

No, I think people these days prefer "natural" fabrics, but not fur, though artificial fake fur can be made of nylon or nylon blends. I mostly see it in more bulk form, not fabric: fishing lines, zippers, even car parts. The first Wiki link above lists a bunch of uses. As a plastic, it's very versatile. But as a fabric? I can't remember the last time I could identify a pure nylon fabric. I think I had a raincoat made of it as a kid, but I'm not sure even of that.

I guess you could say that if you're looking for nylon stockings today, you might be hosed.