4 Human-Made Materials We Take for Granted

4 Nylon

Now, if you’re an environmentalist, you might have a difficult relationship with nylon. From a day-to-day, quality-of-life lens, though, it’s an incredible material. 

What first comes to many people’s minds will be stockings, to which I say: get your mind out of the gutter. It was cooked up by materials monolith DuPont as an alternative to silk. Given that it was looking to replace a very expensive material that had driven its own global trade, it was primed to have a big impact, which it inarguably did. 

Nylon was a polymer, but one that was only reached through an incredible amount of iterations to be durable and inexpensive. Given that it’s used in everything from shoelaces to industrial parts to surgical sutures — and can claim to have had an impact on the outcome of World War II — it’s hard to call it anything but world-changing.

3 Spandex

Another material known most primarily in fashion, and one that’s also had a huge influence on horny photos forever is Spandex. Again, we’re thanking DuPont here, a common theme of this article. 

Spandex came from a need related to a long-obsolete women’s undergarment: the girdle. Girdles in the early 1900s were made from rubberized thread, and were exactly as torturous as that sounds. Joseph C. Shivers Jr. at DuPont provided the answer, in the stretchy material that was an improvement across the board. 

Improved comfort aside, though, their plans went out the window when women decided that what would be even more comfortable would be to stop wearing girdles altogether. Luckily for them, even without women willing to compress their ribs for the male gaze, there were plenty of applications that could use something that could stretch up to five times its size and still retain its shape. 

Spandex, by one name or another, is still a massive part of fashion, arguably more than ever. Not only that, it’s found its way into many other products as well.

2 Teflon

We’re still at DuPont for our next entry, but they can’t take credit for Teflon quite as directly as they did with nylon or spandex. That's because Teflon was invented by accident. 

Roy Plunkett and his assistant Jack Rebok were looking to invent a new refrigerant in 1938, and instead, they ended up with a white, waxy solid with a remarkably low friction coefficient. One fun fact is that Teflon is still the only known material that a gecko's feet can't stick to. The substance’s slickness is still what it’s mostly known for today, and to most people, it’s mentioned in relation to cookware and mob boss nicknames. 

Before it kept eggs from permanently pairing with your skillet, though, it had extensive use in a much darker pursuit: the creation of the first atomic bomb, where it was used in gaskets for its anti-corrosive properties. Today, it still serves an incredible amount of uses, and is omnipresent across the world— including, unfortunately, inside our bodies.

1 Steel

This one's notably older than every other material on the list. So much so, that references to “steel” are usually shorthand for a bygone age, whether it’s knights in battle or vintage cars. Steel’s been such an essential part of human life, and for so long, that I’d probably put some money on a couple of you thinking it’s a naturally occurring element. It’s a testament to how deeply entrenched in our existence it is that it doesn’t lend itself to easy answers. 

What’s it used for? It would be easier to list applications it’s not appropriate for. Who invented it? Even if you had a time machine and headed back to the first millennium B.C., you’d still be in for an argument over that. Before steel, people were stuck with bronze and iron, both of which are plenty useful, but have a wealth of annoyances baked in. Cook out the impurities, and add carbon to that iron, though, and you end up with an absolutely incredible alloy. 

Even now, it’s still endlessly useful, especially with advancements made over time.