April 6

In an event on a par with the perfection of the polio vaccine by Louis Pasteur and astronaut Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon, on the 6th in 1938 Roy J. Plunkett (pictured), a DuPont chemist charged with developing a new refrigerant serendipitously discovered polytetrafluoroethylene, which was immediately re-named Teflon, so that it would fit properly into a cooking utensil. In recognition of Plunkett’s contributions to Western Civilization and life as we know it generally, in 1973 he was inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame. Additionally, in 1985 he was admitted into the Inventors Hall of Fame. Will the joy never end?