GERMAN HISTORY Perlon, the Nazi nylon

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Perlon, the Nazi nylon 75History years ago the night in a Berlin laboratory produces a substance that fighter pilots saves the life, woman flatters legs and armpits sweating men can: Perlon. © German-strumpfmuseum.de

A men's socks from Perlon

Germany's economic miracle müffelt. This is not just the proverbial smoky industrial smokestacks, but also to the favorite materials of the textile manufacturer: Nylon and nylon. Not only the women's legs stuck in ever cheaper mass stockings, even dresses and blouses and men's shirts are made ​​of plastic. Because no air gets to the skin, sweat and stink of the Federal German in plastic clothes quickly. No wonder that even the deodorant at this time to begin its triumphal. Significant debt at the stuffiness of the fifties and sixties wearing Paul Schlack , 1897 in Stuttgart, born in 1921, is a certified chemist. He leads in the thirties, the research department at acetates of East-Hagen, a company that for chemical company IG Farben heard. It manufactures rayon especially a semi-synthetic fiber made ​​of cellulose. The holiday reading , which Schlack in the summer 1937 with the Lake Tegel is not just a thriller: the patents for nylon, those first fully synthetic fiber , the American Wallace Hume Carothers was made ​​in early 1935 for the first time. Schlack look for clues as to invent their own fiber, without the nylon from DuPont patent infringing. Schlack Browsed in the documents of the nylon-inventing So a Swabian officials son works thoroughly: Schlack takes before a starting material, the Carothers has already rejected, the circular molecule caprolactam . Because steel appliances in the German Empire, which by itsNazi leadership is already preparing for war, do not get easily, Schlack takes a place meant for large kitchens boiler be content. Is derived from coal tar verköchelt cyclohexanone with 90 percent sulfuric acid to caprolactam. The real trick, however, is what chemists "ROP" call: At 240 degrees

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Celsius, breaking the closed water molecule from the rings are chains of hundreds of molecules. On the morning of 29 Schlack in January 1938 moved to a nighttime experiment in his laboratory oven round bars, two or three inches thick, and highly stable. The horn-like material to melt and draw endless threads of rows of molecules. Tear-resistant, flexible and temperature-resistant: The features are the same as for nylon, but during this chemical called Polyamide 6.6 - consists of alternating molecules of hexamethylene diamine and adipic acid, hang in Perlon (polycaprolactam or polyamide 6) is always the same molecules to each other. OVERVIEW ON THIS ARTICLE PAGE 1

Perlon, the Nazi nylon

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The path to the sock is still long

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GERMAN HISTORY

Perlon, the Nazi nylon Page 2/2: The path to the sock is still long

The path to the ladies hosiery is still long. Although it can be located Perluran Schlack, as he was still called, in the summer of 1938, patented under the number 748 253, and a little later who knits LBO firm of Louis workers in Saxony Oberlungwitz the first attempt stocking. On the market that comes first but not: Perlon is vital to the war, only the IG Farben managers can tap some trousers for their ladies. Parachutes Perlon for the Wehrmacht Instead, perlon ropes arise for the Wehrmacht, high-pressure hoses for aircraft tires and bristles for brushes with which weapons are cleaned. As silk from Japan no longer to Europe passes, all parachutes are sewn from Perlon. Schlack receives the Military Cross, the home front version of the Iron Cross. Even for nylon, the military is an important customer, but at least the U.S. company sold in 1939 at its headquarters in Wilmington (Delaware) first stockings. And on 15 May 1940 then "N-Day": The sale of nylon stockings starts in the whole USA . Alone on the first day brings DuPont claims to be five million pairs among the people. Even with IG Farben DuPont Business Happens. Although the failed attempt to sell the Germans a license for Nylon - who yes Perlon. So they divide markets among themselves and form a synthetic fiber cartel , cemented by mutual shareholdings. The IG Farben company that earned by including forced labor and the production of poison gas in World War II, is shattered after 1945. Most synthetic fiber factories are located in the East, many machines are dismantled and as reparations to the Soviet Union managed. 1947 threatens Saxony Minister Fritz Selbmann , "the women in the western zones as long walk barefoot to their husbands we supply stainless steel and metallurgical coke." Fortunately, the women in the West care packages from the USA are also nylon stockings. They are - in addition to American cigarettes - the currency of the black market. But Perlon returns: Just four years after the war throws Schlack production in the West again, with the usual consequences for the fashion world and the sense of smell. Today the world's chemical industry produces about four million tons Perlon a year - almost twice as much as the old rivals nylon. Especially the snares of carpets arise from polyamide.For blouses and shirts, there are other fibers. Fortunately for our noses . The brand name "Perlon" can the West German synthetic fibers protect the 1952nd The production in the East to counter with its own brand: "Dederon", derived from the symbol

DDR. Flowered aprons and tote bagsfrom Dederon are everyday clothing and accessory East German housewives . 1963 leaves the workers 'and peasants' state even print a stamp block on Dederonfolie, saying: "Chemistry for peace and socialism."

http://www.zeit.de/wissen/geschichte/2013-01/perlon-kunstfaser-schlack-geschichte