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'E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company' (, , ) was founded in July 1802 as a
gun powder mill by
Eleuthère Irénée du Pont on
Brandywine Creek, near
Wilmington, Delaware,
USA. DuPont is currently the world's second largest chemical company (behind
BASF) in terms of
market capitalization and fourth (behind BASF,
Dow Chemical and
Ineos) in revenue. Its stock price is also a component of the
Dow Jones Industrial Average.
In the
twentieth century, DuPont led the
polymer revolution by developing many highly successful materials such as
Vespel,
neoprene,
nylon,
Corian,
Teflon,
Mylar,
Kevlar,
Zemdrain,
M5 fiber,
Nomex,
Tyvek and
Lycra. DuPont has also been significantly involved in the
refrigerant industry, developing and producing the
Freon (CFCs) series and later, more environmentally friendly refrigerants. In the paint and pigment industry, it has created synthetic pigments and paints, such as
ChromaFlair.
DuPont is often successful in popularizing the brands of its material products such that their
trademark names become
more commonly used than the generic or chemical word(s) for the material itself. One example is “neoprene”, which was intended originally to be a trademark but quickly came into common usage.
History
Original DuPont powder wagon
1802
DuPont was founded in 1802 by
Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, two years after he and his family left
France to escape the
French Revolution. The company began as a manufacturer of gunpowder, as du Pont had noticed that the industry in North America was lagging behind Europe and saw a market for it. The company grew quickly, and by the mid nineteenth century had become the largest supplier of gunpowder to the
United States military, supplying as much as half of the powder used by the
Union Army during the
American Civil War.
1902 To 1912
DuPont continued to expand, moving into the production of
dynamite and
smokeless powder. In
1902, DuPont's president,
Eugene du Pont, died, and the surviving partners sold the company to three great-grandsons of the original founder. The company subsequently purchased several smaller chemical companies, and in 1912 these actions gave rise to government scrutiny under the
Sherman Antitrust Act. The courts declared that the company's dominance of the explosives business constituted a
monopoly and ordered
divestment. The court ruling resulted in the creation of the
Hercules Powder and
Atlas Chemical companies.
[1]
DuPont also established two of the first industrial laboratories in the United States, where they began work on
cellulose chemistry,
lacquers and other non-explosive products. DuPont's
Central Research Department was established at the
Experimental Station, across the
Brandywine River from the original powder mills.
1914
In 1914,
Pierre S. du Pont, invested in the fledgling
automobile industry, buying stock of
General Motors (GM). The following year he was invited to sit on GM's board of directors and would eventually be appointed the company's chairman. The DuPont company would assist the struggling automobile company further with a $25 million purchase of GM stock. In 1920, Pierre S. du Pont was elected president of General Motors. Under du Pont's guidance, GM became the number one automobile company in the world. However, in 1957, because of DuPont's influence within GM, further action under the
Clayton Antitrust Act forced DuPont to divest itself of its shares of General Motors.
1920
In the 1920s DuPont continued its emphasis on
materials science, hiring
Wallace Carothers to work on
polymers in 1928. Carothers discovered
neoprene, the first
synthetic rubber, the first
polyester superpolymer and in 1935,
nylon. Discovery of
Lucite and
Teflon followed a few years later. 1935 was also the year that DuPont first introduced the chemical
Phenothiazine as an insecticide.
1943
Throughout this period, the company continued to be a major producer of war supplies in both
World War I and
World War II, and played a major role in the
Manhattan Project in
1943, designing, building and operating the
Hanford plutonium producing plant and the
Savannah River Plant in
South Carolina.
1950 To 1970
After the war, DuPont continued its emphasis on new materials, developing
Mylar,
Dacron,
Orlon and
Lycra in the 1950s, and
Tyvek,
Nomex,
Qiana,
Corfam and
Corian in the 1960s. DuPont materials were critical to the success of the
Apollo Space program.
DuPont has been the key company behind the development of modern
body armour. In World War II DuPont's ballistic nylon was used by the
RAF to make
FLAK Jackets. With the development of
Kevlar in the 1960s, DuPont began tests to see if it could resist a lead bullet. This research would ultimately lead to the bullet resistant vests that are the mainstay of police and military units in the industrialized world.
1981 To 1995
In 1981, DuPont acquired
Conoco Inc., a major American oil and gas producing company that gave it a secure source of petroleum feedstocks needed for the manufacturing of many of its fiber and plastics products. The acquisition, which made DuPont one of the top ten U.S. based petroleum and natural gas producers and refiners, came about after a bidding war with the giant
distillery,
Seagram Company Ltd. which would become DuPont's largest single shareholder with four seats on the board of directors. On April 6, 1995, after being approached by Seagram Chief Executive Officer
Edgar Bronfman, Jr., DuPont announced a deal whereby the company would buy back all the shares owned by Seagram.
1999
In 1999, DuPont sold all of its Conoco shares, the business merging with
Phillips Petroleum Company. That year, CEO
Chad Holliday switched the company's focus towards producing DuPont chemicals from living plants rather than processing them from
petroleum.
Current activities
DuPont describes itself as a global science company that employs more than 60,000 people worldwide and has a diverse array of product offerings.
[2] In 2005, the Company ranked 66th in the Fortune 500 on the strength of nearly $28 billion in revenues and $1.8 billion in profits.
[3]
DuPont businesses are organized into the following five categories, known as marketing "platforms" - electronic and communication technologies, performance materials, coatings and color technologies, safety and protection, and agriculture and nutrition. In 2004 the company sold its textiles business, which included some of its best-known brands such as
Lycra (
Spandex),
Dacron polyester,
Orlon acrylic,
Antron nylon and
Thermolite, to
Koch Industries. DuPont also manufactures
Surlyn, which is used for the covers of golf balls, and, more recently, the body panels of the Club Car Precedent golf cart.
DuPont's annual R&D budget is $1.3 billion; its latest project is a research center in
Hyderabad, A.P.,
India scheduled to open in mid-2008, that will focus on agriculture and nutrition products.
NASCAR sponsorship
DuPont is widely known for its sponsorship of
NASCAR driver
Jeff Gordon and his
Hendrick Motorsports #24
Chevrolet Monte Carlo. DuPont has been sponsoring Jeff Gordon since he began in
NEXTEL Cup (then Winston Cup) in
1992. DuPont has said this about their sponsorship:
Our sponsorship of Jeff Gordon helps keep DuPont brands and products in the public eye. Branding is a key component of the DuPont knowledge intensity strategy for achieving sustainable growth.[1]
In
2007, DuPont and
Jeff Gordon and
Hendrick Motorsports are currently celebrating the 15th season together, and it is currently the longest driver/sponsor/owner combination in
NASCAR.
Corporate governance
Current board of directors
★
Charles O. Holliday - CEO
★
Richard H. Brown
★
Robert A. Brown
★
Bertrand P. Collomb
★
Curtis J. Crawford
★
John T. Dillon
★
There du Pont
★
Lois D. Juliber
★
Masahisa Naitoh
★
Sean O'Keefe
★
William K. Reilly
Environmental record
DuPont has a mixed environmental record, receiving praise from some for environmentally friendly practices while at the same time incurring large government fines and stern criticism from environmental researchers. In 2005, ''
BusinessWeek'' magazine, in conjunction with the
Climate Group, ranked DuPont as the best-practice leader in cutting their carbon gas emissions
[4] [5]. They pointed out that Dupont reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 65% from the 1990 levels while using 7% less energy and producing 30% more product. However, researchers at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst ranked Dupont as the largest corporate producer of
air pollution in the United States.
[6] The study found Dupont's most toxic pollution comprised
Chloroprene (855,370 lbs/yr),
Sulfuric acid (804,501 lbs/yr), and
Chlorine (65,088lbs/yr) based on
Toxics Release Inventory data. The most massive releases came in the form of more than 4 million lbs of
Carbonyl sulfide followed by 2 million lbs of
Hydrochloric acid.
[7]
May 24, 2007, marked the opening of the USD 2.1 million DuPont Nature Center at Mispillion Harbor Reserve, a wildlife observatory and interpretive center on the Delaware Bay near Milford, Delaware, USA. DuPont contributed both financial and technological support to create the center, as part of its "Clear into the Future" initiative to enhance the beauty and integrity of the Delaware Estuary. The facility will be state-owned and operated by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC).
[8][9]
Positive recognition
DuPont was four times awarded the
National Medal of Technology, first in
1990, for its invention of "high-performance man-made polymers such as
nylon,
neoprene rubber, "
Teflon" fluorocarbon resin, and a wide spectrum of new fibers, films, and engineering plastics"; the second for 2002 "for policy and technology leadership in the phaseout and replacement of
chlorofluorocarbons". Additionally, DuPont scientist
George Levitt was honored with the
medal in
1993 for the development of sulfonylureas — environmentally friendly herbicides for every major food crop in the world. In
1996, DuPont scientist
Stephanie Kwolek was recognized for the discovery and development of
Kevlar.
Controversies
Hemp
It is often asserted in pro-cannabis publications that DuPont actively supported the criminalization of the production of
hemp in the US in 1937 through private and government intermediates, and alleged that this was done to eliminate hemp as a source of
fiber — one of DuPont's biggest markets at the time. The company denies these allegations.
[10][11]
Price fixing
In
1941, an investigation of
Standard Oil Co. and
IG Farben brought evidence concerning complex price and marketing agreements between DuPont,
U.S. Industrial Alcohol Company, and their subsidiary
Cuba Distilling Company. The investigation was eventually dropped, like dozens of others in many different kinds of industries, because of the need to enlist industry support in the
war effort.
[12]
"Behind the Nylon Curtain"
In
1974,
Gerard Colby Zilg, wrote '', a critical account of the role of the DuPont family in American social, political and economic history. The book was nominated for a
National Book Award in 1974.
A du Pont family member obtained an advance copy of the manuscript and was “predictably outraged”. A DuPont official contacted The Fortune Book Club and stated that the book was “scurrilous” and “actionable” but produced no evidence to counter the charges. The Fortune Book Club (a subsidiary of the Book of the Month Club) reversed its decision to distribute Zilg's book. The editor-in-chief of the Book of the Month Club declared that the book was “malicious” and had an “objectionable tone”. Prentice-Hall removed several inaccurate passages from the page proofs of the book, and cut the first printing from 15,000 to 10,000 copies, stating that 5,000 copies no longer were needed for the book club distribution. The proposed advertising budget was reduced from $15,000 to $5,000.
Zilg sued Prentice-Hall (Zilg v. Prentice-Hall), accusing it of reneging on a contract to promote sales.
The Federal District Court ruled that
Prentice Hall had "privished" the book (the company conducting an inadequate merchandising effort after concluding that the book did not meet its expectations as to quality or marketability) and breached its obligation to Zilg to use its best efforts in promoting the book because the publisher had no valid business reason for reducing the first printing or the advertising budget. The court also ruled that the DuPont Company had a constitutionally protected interest in discussing its good faith opinion of the merits of Zilg's work with the book clubs and the publisher, and found that the company had not engaged in threats of economic coercion or baseless litigation.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned the damages award in September of
1983. The court stated that, while DuPont's actions “surely” resulted in the book club's decision not to distribute Zilg's work and also resulted in a change in Prentice-Hall's previously supportive attitude toward the book, DuPont's conduct was not actionable. The court further stated that the contract did not contain an explicit “best efforts” or “promote fully” promise, much less an agreement to make certain specific promotional efforts. Printing and advertising decisions were within Prentice-Hall's discretion.
Zilg lost a
Supreme Court appeal in April
1984.
In 1984
Lyle Stuart re-released an extended version, ''Du Pont Dynasty: Behind the Nylon Curtain''.
[13]
Chlorofluorocarbons
Along with
General Motors, DuPont was the inventor of CFCs (
chlorofluorocarbons), and the largest producer of these
ozone depleting chemicals (used primarily in
aerosol sprays and
refrigerants) in the world, with a 25% market share in the late
1980s.
In 1974, responding to public concern about the safety of CFCs,
[14] DuPont promised through newspaper advertisements and
congressional testimony to stop production of CFCs should they be proved to be harmful to the ozone layer. On 4 March 1988,
U.S. Senators Max Baucus (
D-
Mont.),
David Durenberger (
R-
Minn.), and
Robert T. Stafford (R-
Vt.) officially wrote to DuPont, in their capacity as the leadership of the Congressional subcommittee on hazardous wastes and toxic substances, asking the company to keep its promise to completely stop CFC production (and to do so for most CFC types within one year) in light of the 1987 international
Montreal Protocol for the global reduction of CFCs (signed for the United States by President
Ronald Reagan). The Senators argued that “DuPont has a unique and special obligation” as the original developer of CFCs and the author of previous public assurances made by the company regarding the safety of CFCs. DuPont's response was that the senatorial demand was more drastic than the scientific evidence warranted, and that alternative chemicals were only in their infancy.
In a dramatic turnaround on
24 March 1988, DuPont announced that it would begin leaving the CFC business entirely after a
15 March NASA announcement that CFCs were not only creating a hole in the ozone layer above
Antarctica but also thinning the layer elsewhere in the world.
DuPont announced that it would stop selling CFCs with a full page ad in the
27 April 1992 ''
New York Times'' stating “we will stop selling CFC's as soon as possible, but no later than year end 1995 in the US and other developed countries.”
[15]
In later years, DuPont would maintain that the company had taken the initiative in phasing out CFCs
[16] and in replacing CFCs with a new generation of refrigerant chemicals, such as
HCFCs and
HFCs.
[17] In 2003, DuPont was awarded the
National Medal of Technology, recognizing the company as the leader in developing CFC replacements.
Iraq's nuclear program
In a report submitted by Saddam Hussein to the United Nations shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it was revealed that DuPont had participated in Iraq's nuclear weapons program. (Though the U.S. attempted to redact the names of all U.S. companies involved, an uncensored copy was leaked to the press.)
[18][19] DuPont has not faced any sanctions because of this. The company denies that it sold materials to Iraq for any nuclear weapons program.
Further reading
★ Ashish Arora, Ralph Landau and Nathan Rosenberg, eds. ''Chemicals and Long-Term Economic Growth: Insights from the Chemical Industry'' (2000)
★ Alfred D. Chandler, '' Pierre S. Du Pont and the making of the modern corporation'' (1971)
★ Alfred D. Chandler, ''Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise'' (1969)
★ Williams Haynes. ''American chemical industry'' (1983)
★ David A. Hounshell. ''Science and Corporate Strategy: Du Pont R and D, 1902-1980'' (1988)
★ Adrian Kinnane. ''DuPont: From the Banks of the Brandywine to Miracles of Science'' (2002)
★ Pap A. Ndiaye, ''Nylon and Bombs: DuPont and the March of Modern America'' (trans. 2007)
See also
★
Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children
★
DuPont and C-8
★
Du Pont family
★
Hagley Museum and Library
★
Longwood Gardens
External links
★
Yahoo company profile: EI du Pont de Nemours and Company
★
DuPont stock performance chart from
Gstock
★
DuPont/MIT Alliance
★
Licensed Industrial Applicator Europe
References and notes
★ Corporate History as presented by the company:
Online Interpretive Exhibit
★
EPA Fines Teflon Maker DuPont for Chemical Cover-Up Largest Administrative Fine in Agency's History Shows Seriousness of Polluting Babies' Blood and Drinking Water, EWG Public Affairs, , , Environmental Working Group (EWG), December 14, 2005
★
Preliminary Risk Assessment of the Developmental Toxicity Associated with Exposure to Perfluorooctanoic Acid and its Salts
1. The Historical Society of Delaware–The DuPont Company. (URL accessed March 29, 2006).
2. DuPont–Company at a Glance. Retrieved on March 29, 2006
3. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500_archive/full/2005/ Fortune 500: 1955–2006. CNNMoney.com. Retrieved on May 16, 2007.
4. DuPont Tops ''BusinessWeek'' Ranking of Green Companies, Unknown Author, , , GreenBiz News, December 6, 2005
5. Green Leaders Show The Way Business Week
6. Political Economy Research Institute Toxic 100 retrieved 13 Aug 2007
7. Toxic 100 company profile
8. "State’s DuPont Nature Center at Mispillion Harbor Reserve Opens"
9. "DuPont Nature Center Dedicated in Delaware"
10. ''[Hemp & the Marijuana Conspiracy:] The Emperor Wears No Clothes'' by Jack Herer, various editions.
11. ''The Elkhorn Manifesto: Shadow of the Swastika'' by R. William Davis
12. DuPont settles toxin case, Unknown Author, , , The Associated Press, Wednesday, December 14, 2005 ; DuPont, EPA Settle Chemical Complaint Firm Didn't Report Risks, Agency Says, Eilperin, Juliet, , , Washington Post Business Week, 15 December 2005
13. High Court Rebuffs Author, Unknown Author, , , The New York Times, 17 April 1984 ; Authors Fighting for 'Voice in the Process', Flaherty, Francis J., , , The National Law Journal, 2 April 1984 ; Federal Court of Appeals reverses award of damages to author Gerard Zilg in his breach of contract action against Prentice-Hall; District Court's dismissal of Zilg's action against E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company for tortious interference with contractual relations is affirmed, Unknown Author, , , Entertainment Law Reporter, April 1984 ; "Privish" and Perish, Slung, Michele, , , The Washington Post, 9 October 1983
14. DuPont Refrigerants–History Timeline, 1970. (URL accessed 29 March 2006).
15. The World is Phasing Out CFCs, It Won't Be Easy, Unknown Author, , , The New York Times, 27 April 1992
16. DuPont Refrigerants– History Timeline, 1980. (URL accessed 29 March 2006).
17. US EPA: Ozone Depletion Glossary. (URL accessed 29 March 2006).
18. The Memory Hole > “The Corporations That Supplied Iraq's Weapons Program”. (URL accessed 29 March 2006).
19. Democracy Now–Top Secret Iraq Weapons Report Says the U.S. Government & Corporations Helped to Illegally Arm Iraq. (URL accessed 29 March 2006).
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