Nathaniel C. Wyeth
DuPont Company
Inducted 1986
Nathaniel C. Wyeth (1911 – 1990) was an inventor and co-inventor of 25 products and processes spanning a wide range of plastics, textile fibers, and electronic and mechanical systems. He is credited with developing the biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle widely used today for packaging carbonated beverages.
Wyeth was born in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and named after his father, Newell Convers Wyeth, the famous illustrator. His name was changed to Nathaniel when he was ten. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in mechanical engineering. In 1936, Wyeth joined the engineering department of E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Company. In 1963, Wyeth was named DuPont’s first Engineering Fellow; with the title went the privilege of selecting his area of research. In 1975, he was named Senior Engineering Fellow, the highest technical position at DuPont. He retired in 1976, and became a consultant with DuPont’s College Relations Section.
Wyeth’s unique and unparalleled development set the direction and tone of rigid plastic containers for soft drinks and revolutionized the beverage packaging industry. U.S. commercial production of PET bottles, which was negligible in 1977, exploded to 2.5 billion containers by 1980, completely sweeping aside the glass container in that application. By 1985, industry estimates placed the U.S. soft drink bottle at 5.5 billion units. The PET bottle became quickly and widely accepted because it was lighter than glass, virtually unbreakable, and it did not chemically contaminate contents. Wyeth’s contributions are many and varied.
During his career, he was involved in developing polymer processing equipment, synthetic textile fibers, plastic products, and other mechanical systems. He developed a pre-centered wire-coating die, a foamed plastic wire-coating system, a plastic base for soft drink bottles, a process for bonding nonwoven polypropylene sheets, a plastic aerosol valve, a process for continuous production of oriented plastic tubing, and a process for manufacturing plastic parts to replace sheet metal in automotive applications.
Wyeth was a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and a member of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), which honored him for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering/Technology in 1981 and 1986 and awarded him its International Award. He was an honorary member of Pi Tau Sigma (the mechanical engineering honor society.) Nathaniel Wyeth was also the brother of American Artist Andrew Wyeth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Wyeth_(inventor)