April 6, 1938: Teflon, an Invention That Sticks

1938: Fiddling around in the lab one day, Roy Plunkett accidentally discovers polytetrafluoroethylene, soon to be known as Teflon, a slippery substance that will have practical applications in everything from nonstick cookware to a presidential nickname. Plunkett, a chemist at DuPont’s Jackson research lab in New Jersey, made his discovery in the time-honored scientific way: [...]