John Rex Whinfield invented terylene, a synthetic polyester fiber that is equal to or surpasses nylon in toughness and resilience, and has become used universally as a textile fiber. The invention of terylene, also known as Dacron, was the culmination of many years of study and reasoning about the molecular structure and physical and chemical properties of polymers. Whinfield's major inventive work on terylene was carried out aside from his primary research in the small laboratory of a company that had little or no interest in research on fibers. He spent his life working as an industrial research chemist and eventually became director of the fibers division of Imperial Chemical Industries. Recognition for his work came in the later years of his life.

Whinfield was born February 16, 1901, in Sutton, Surrey, England, to John Henry Richard Whinfield, a mechanical engineer, and Edith Matthews Whinfield. As a boy, Whinfield showed...