In 1952, the DuPont Company organized a Product Information section within the Public Relations Department. Its main purpose was to create news releases accompanied by photographs that would be run editorially by trade journals and newspapers to create inexpensive publicity and indirect advertising.The DuPont Company product information collection collection (Accession 1972.341) contains photographs of DuPont Company corporate events and proceedings, product trade shows and fairs, development and manufacturing processes, and the employees and facilities where the products were created. Most of the photographs were taken from the 1930s through the 1950s. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety.Image: Comparison of Teflon and plastic. Click to view.
The Perth Amboy plant of the DuPont Company's Electrochemical Department. Plant No. 2, shown above, makes formaldehyde, paraformaldehyde and hexamethylenetetramine. Plant No. 1, located a few city blocks away, manufactures ceramic colors, conductive silver, and vitreous enamel for aluminum.
Hexamethylenetetramine, commonly called hexamine, being loaded into barrels for shipment at the Perth Amboy, NJ plant of DuPont's Electrochemicals Department. Hexamine is an important ingredient in thermosetting resins.
Hydrogen cyanide manufacturing unit dramatizes the multi-million dollar investment in production facilities at Memphis, TN plant of the DuPont Company's Electrochemicals Department. Picture is taken from beneath tank car unloading station looking north. Hydrogen cyanide is reacted with caustic soda at another plant unit to form sodium cyanide, which plays an important role in electroplating, case hardening of metal., in the manufacture of a nylon intermediate an in various other chemical operations. Potassium cyanide and hydrogen peroxide are also made at this plant.
The continuous production process at the DuPont Company's plant near Memphis, TN calls for round-the-clock operations by its 500 employees. The unit pictured here makes hydrogen cyanide which in turn is used to make sodium cyanide, an ingredient in a number of basic industries. Flame atop stick burns waste gases. Bridge at left leads to storage tanks in background.
Some of the massive equipment needed to produce hydrogen cyanide at the Memphis TN plant of the DuPont Company. Natural gas, ammonia and air are combined under heat and pressure to form hydrogen cyanide, which is then reacted with caustic soda to produce sodium cyanide, an industrial chemical with a host of essential uses. Expensive equipment like this has pushed DuPont's operating investment per employee to $23,000 as compared with $18,000 only a few years ago. Plant also produces hydrogen peroxide and potassium cyanide.
Overhead bridge carries pipes from hydrogen cyanide manufacturing unit to storage tanks at Memphis TN plant of the DuPont Company's Electrochemicals Department. Two basic industrial chemicals are produced here- sodium cyanide, which is made from hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen peroxide. Sodium cyanide is used in the manufacture of nylon intermediate and in other chemical and industrial operations. Paper and textile industries use hydrogen peroxide as bleaching agent.
Hydrogen cyanide converters at DuPont's Memphis TN plant. Preheated mixture of ammonia, natural gas and air is fed down through the top of these conical converters where it is passed over a catalyst bed and converted into hydrogen cyanide. Side walls of the cones are cooled by falling film of water. Hydrogen cyanide is used in plant to make sodium cyanide, an important industrial chemical.
A view of the hydrogen peroxide manufacturing unit at the Memphis TN plant of the DuPont Company's Electrochemicals Department. The finished product is a colorless clear liquid with a slightly pungent odor. It is widely used in bleaching textiles, including cotton, wool, silk, rayon and linen. The first hydrogen peroxide plant to be built in the South, it utilizes a new non electrolytic process developed after six years of research in DuPont laboratories. The Memphis location places the plant close to numerous other textile mills and pulp industries which also use large quantities of hydrogen peroxide for bleaching.
Another view of the DuPont hydrogen peroxide unit at Memphis, TN taken from underneath a platform on the sodium cyanide plant crystallizer. Two major products made at the plant are basic industrial chemicals: hydrogen peroxide, a widely used bleach and chemical intermediate; and sodium cyanide, used extensively in electroplating and case hardening of metal and in the manufacture of nylon. The plant utilizes streamlined manufacturing processes which were developed in the company's extensive research laboratories.
The DuPont Company's new non-electrolytic hydrogen peroxide plant at Memphis, TN as seen during nighttime operation. The peroxide made here is shipped to textile and pulp mills in the southern area where it is used for bleaching. The chemical is also used in the rubber industry and in the synthesis of many organic and inorganic compounds. Sodium cyanide, another basic industrial chemical which makes an essential contribution to a number of vital products, is manufactured in a separate unit at the plant.
Another view of the DuPont hydrogen peroxide unit at Memphis, TN taken from underneath a platform on the sodium cyanide plant crystallizer. Two major products made at the plant are basic industrial chemicals: hydrogen peroxide, a widely used bleach and chemical intermediate; and sodium cyanide, used extensively in electroplating and case hardening of metal and in the manufacture of nylon. The plant utilizes streamlined manufacturing processes which were developed in the company's extensive research laboratories.
The DuPont plant in Memphis, TN makes two basic industrial chemicals, sodium cyanide and hydrogen peroxide. Building in background is the hydrogen peroxide unit which makes use of the modern open air type of construction. Peroxide is an important bleaching agent and is used in the bleaching of about 85% of all cotton goods. Growing usefulness of sodium cyanide has been found in various industries include electroplating, case hardening of metal and in making of a nylon intermediate.
Coiling pipes of two waste heat boilers silhouette hydrogen peroxide manufacturing unit at DuPont's Memphis , TN plant. Hydrogen peroxide, an important bleaching agent and sodium cyanide, a second major product made at the Memphis plant, are both basic industrial chemicals. The plant, which is on a 225 acre site ten miles north of Memphis, provides direct employment for more than 500 people.
A section of the instrument panel in central room of hydrogen peroxide manufacturing unit at the DuPont Company's Memphis TN plant. Hydrogen peroxide is widely used as a bleaching of oils, fats and waxes and as a blowing agent for sponge rubber. The Memphis plant, one of three DuPont hydrogen peroxide units, utilizes a new non-electrolytic process developed in the company's research laboratories at a cost of several million dollars.
Tank cars are loaded with hydrogen peroxide at the DuPont Company's plant near Memphis TN. Structure in left background is hydrogen peroxide manufacturing unit which uses a new non electrolytic process developed by DuPont research. One of plant's 250,000 pound aluminum peroxide storage tanks is at left and drum filling station and warehouse at right. Southern textile and paper mills use large quantities of hydrogen peroxide for bleaching.
Methanol is refined in a series of distillation columns, called a train at the Belle WV plant of the DuPont Company. Steps in the refining process are explained by a Belle operator.
Methanol vapor is changed to liquid in condensers in which it is piped through a bath of constantly circulating cold water. There an inspector checks the level of the water bath in a condenser at the Belle WV plant of the DuPont Company. Methanol, produced at another DuPont plant, is refined at the Belle Works.
Refining of crude alcohol, represented by the two bottles on the bottom step, at the Belle WV plant of the DuPont Company's Polychemicals Department, produces five intermediate alcohols, represented by bottles on the second step, and finally the thirteen finished products, including refined methanol, represented by the bottles on the top step. Methanol is a basic material for making plastics, anti-freeze compounds, dyes and formaldehyde.
Formaldehyde for plastics and other uses is made from methyl alcohol (methanol) and air. These are the big storage tanks for methanol at the Perth Amboy NJ plant of DuPont's Electrochemicals Department where formaldehyde is manufactured. The quality of methanol produced formerly depended up the demand for charcoal, made by destructive distillation of wood. Now methanol is synthesized at a DuPont plant and shipped in tank cars to Perth Amboy.
Huge reformers with their stately stacks at DuPont's Sabine River Works, Orange, TX are used to convert natural gas into hydrogen and carbon monoxide for the synthesis of methanol. Methanol is used chiefly for making anti-freeze and formaldehyde.
Methanol made from the element of coal, air and water by processes of high pressure synthesis at the Belle WV plant of the DuPont Company, is a basic material for the manufacture of plastics, formaldehyde, dyes and anti-freeze compounds. In the towering stills, methanol is refined, to prepare t for use in the making of these products.
Methanol still house and storage tanks at the Belle WV Works of DuPont's Polychemicals Department. Methanol, produced at another DuPont plant, is refined at Belle. It is used in making the company's Zerone anti-rust and anti-freeze for automobiles and in many other products.
This polyvinyl alcohol unit at the Niagara Falls plant of DuPont's Electrochemicals Department is characteristic of the costly and complicated equipment used by the chemical industry. DuPont has an average investment of $26,900 per employee in tools and equipment. Polyvinyl alcohol is used in the textile and adhesive industries.
