Close-up view of the third continuous spinning machine used during the early stages of nylon production and research at the DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware, with a view of the side-flow chimney and diminishing traverse. During production, nylon chips were fed into the pipe hopper at the top of the machine and then dropped onto a hot grid, where they melted. The melt subsequently flowed through a booster pump designed to help eliminate gas bubbles and ultimately was extruded through a spinneret to form filaments. Finally, the filaments were processed through a steam chimney and wound onto a bobbin at the rate of 1,000 feet per minute.