Kevlar

Stephanie Kwolek, DuPont, USA, patent 3,671,542 of 1972. The polymer five times stronger than steel by weight.

Overview

Kwolek's 1965 liquid-crystal spinning solution looked cloudy and wrong, but she insisted on spinning it, yielding para-aramid fibers. Patents granted 1972. Kevlar stopped bullets in vests, saving thousands of police officers, and reinforced ropes, hulls, and tires. Kwolek, DuPont's fourth female chemist when hired, won the National Medal of Technology in 1996 and mentored women in science until her death. Her opaque mistake became armor. Body armor's root patent is a woman's bench persistence.