Teflon Day is observed each year on April 6. It honors the accidental invention of Teflon on April 6, 1938, by Dr. Roy Plunkett.While working in the Chemours Jackson New Jersey lab that April day, Plunkett, along with his assistant, accidentally discovered polytetrafluoroethylene. Chemours registered the Teflon trademark in 1945. Dr. Plunkett was added to the Inventors’ Hall of Fame in 1985.
If Plunket invented Teflon, which was trademarked in 1945, then Marion A. Trozzolo brought from the laboratory into the kitchen. The Kansas City, Missouri professor had been using the substance to coat his scientific utensils. He later founded Laboratory Plastic ware Fabricators.
In 1961, he marketed the first US-made Teflon coated frying pan, “The Happy Pan”.
But once DuPont decided to market cookware coated with the stuff, a much shorter name was needed. You're probably way ahead of me at this point: DuPont decided to call the coating Teflon.
