Polysaccharide fibers

U.S. Patent 7,000,000 · 2006

Inventor

John P. O'Brien

Assignee

E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont)

Filed

2006

From the abstract

A polysaccharide of one or more 1->3-alpha-D-glucopyranose units having weight average degree of polymerization of from about 100 to about 100,000 is provided. Compositions, fibers, films, and other articles comprising the polysaccharide are disclosed.

Note

The seven-millionth U.S. patent. Issued February 14, 2006 — exactly 130 years after Bell's telephone patent. The invention itself is a synthetic plant-cellulose-mimicking fiber for textiles; commercially modest. But the milestone matters: from 1790 to 1911 the U.S. issued its first 1,000,000 patents. From 1991 to 2006 it issued 2,000,000 more. The pace has only quickened since — patent #11,000,000 issued in 2021.