Charles Smullen, her coworker and the person in charge of the spinning equipment, initially refused to spin the solution.
He feared that it would harm the machine. But finally, Stephanie persuaded him to run it. To their surprise, strong and stiff fibers came back. The stiffness of the fibers was at least nine times greater than anything she had made before.
Everyone at DuPont recognized the significance of Stephanie’s discovery. From then on, many fibers were spun from the solution, including the yellow Kevlar fiber.
Kevlar has gone on to save countless lives as body armor for the police and military. Its most famous application is the Kevlar vest. A police officer from Virginia even had Stephanie autograph the bulletproof vest that saved his life.
Kevlar is also used to protect undersea optical fiber cables and to reinforce ropes to suspend bridges. It is found in hundreds of everyday products as well, such as canoes, frying pans, and tennis rackets.
Stephanie has received several awards for her invention of Kevlar fiber, including the National Medal of Technology in 1996 and the Perkin Medal from the American Chemical Society in 1997.
In addition, she was the fourth female member to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1995. In 2003, she was added to the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
Furthermore, Stephanie served as a mentor for other female scientists and helped introduce science to young kids.
She passed away in 2014 at the age of 90. Her contributions to science continue to live on long after her death. It’s amazing what she was able to create from something so simple as a test tube!
