We're bringing some better living through chemistry to the cookie pushers in our audience today with this 1965 commercial for Teflon coated cookware from DuPont.
Teflon is a brand name for a synthetic fluoropolymer that was accidentally created in 1938 by DuPont employee Roy J. Plunkett in the company's Chemours Chambers Works plant in New Jersey. The lucky discovery was patented in 1941 and the company registered the Teflon trademark in 1945. The company quickly began applying the product to a wide range of applications, that included components of the Manhattan Project's uranium enrichment plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, stain and water resistant fabrics, medical instruments, lubricants, and many various other uses in the fields of industry, commercial products, science, and pharmaceuticals.
The first Teflon coated cookware emerged in 1954, when the French engineer Marc Grégoire, who had been using Teflon on his fishing equipment, was encouraged by his wife Collette to apply the product to her cooking pans. The result encouraged the couple to found the Tefal Corporation, which created and marketed a line of non-stick cookware. In the United States, Teflon-coated cookware debuted in 1961 with "The Happy Pan" from Laboratory Plasticware Fabricators, a company that had previously been using Teflon to manufacture scientific equipment.
This commercial is part of Hagley Library's DuPont Company films and commercials (Accession 1995.300) collection, which consists of moving images documenting the research, development, training, safety measures, products, and promotional aspects of DuPont Company history. This includes commercials, short films, feature films, and television programs. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety, but you can view a selection of nearly 300 films and commercials from this collection online now in our Digital Archives; just click here!
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