Melville Clark was an American musician and businessman. He is known as the inventor of the Clark Irish harp and owner of Clark Music Co., founded by his father, in Syracuse, New York.

Clark invented Nylon strings for harps and then for other instruments were invented by Melville Clark in association with Scientists at DuPont in the 1940s. Wallace Hume Carothers had discovered polymerization while at DuPont in 1930 leading to the development and introduction of Nylon in 1938. Clark advised DuPont on the requirements of harp strings and eventually a process in which Nylon was extruded through holes of appropriate diameter was developed. Clark gave his first concert using the new strings in Syracuse in 1948. Today nylon strings are widely used for many instruments.

See:

Kaiser, Linda Pembroke. Pulling Strings: The Legacy of Melville A. Clark (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2010), pp. 54-61.

Melville Clark Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library