Dupont

History

Dupont was founded in July 1802 by Eleuthère Irenee of the Bridge, two years after it left the France with its family, to escape the Révolution. The activity began close to Wilmington (Delaware) with Brandywine in old mills with flour with a manufacturing plant of blasting powder or Gunpowder. Irenee of the Bridge had noted that industry in North America followed what occurred in Europe and saw a market for this activity. The company developed quickly, and in the middle of the nineteenth century it had become the largest powder supplier of the American army, providing half of the powder employed by the American Armée during the American Civil war. The site of Brandy wine was productive until 1921.

Dupont continued to grow, with the production of Dynamite and powder without smoke. In 1902, the president of Dupont Eugene Of the Bridge died and the surviving associates sold the company with three backs small wire of the founder (Coleman, Pierre and Alfred of the Bridge). The company buys several small chemical companies then, but in 1912, within framework of the Sherman Antitrust Act, it is declared that the preeminence of the company in the field of the explosives involved a situation of Monopole and a dismantling was ordered, having for result the creation of Hercules powder and Atlas chemical.

Dupont also established two of the first industrial laboratories in the United States, where they initiated work on the chemistry of the Cellulose, of the Laque S and other nonexplosive products.

In 1914, Pierre Samuel Of the Bridge, invests in auto industry beginner, by buying actions of General Motors (GM). The following year it was invited to sit at the board of directors of GM, of which it is thereafter elected president. The Dupont company helped the automobile company in difficulty by a purchase of 25 million Dollar S of actions of GM and in 1920, under the councils of Dupont, GM became the number one of the car in the world. However, because of the control of Dupont on GM, the anti-monopoly act of Sherman of 1957, obliges the company Of the Bridge to yield its shares in General Motors.

In the years 1920, Dupont continued to focus himself on the Science of the materials, engaging in 1928 Wallace Carothers to work on the Polymère S. In 1928, Carothers discovers the Néoprène, the first synthetic rubber, the first Polyester superpolymère, and, in 1935, the Nylon. The discovery of the Lucite and the Téflon will follow a few years later.

During this period, the company continued to be an important producer of armaments during the First World War (80% of the production were represented by the explosives) and of the Second world war (25% of the production), while investing the civil market. The firm in addition played a big role in the Projet Manhattan in 1943, while conceiving, building and exploiting the factory of production of Plutonium of Hanford in the State of the Washington as well as the national laboratory of Oak Ridge to the Tennessee.

After the war, Dupont continued to concentrate on innovating materials, by developing the Mylar, the Dacron, the Orlon and the Lycra in the years 1950, then the Tyvek, the Nomex, the Qiana, the Corfam and the Corian in the years 1960. The materials of Bridge played a big role in the success of the program Apollo.

In 1981, Dupont acquired Conoco Inc., an important tanker and gas American, this company which gave him perennial access of manner to the raw materials basic: the oil used in the manufacturing process of many products: fibers and plastics. This acquistion, did of Bridge one of the ten principal American tankers.

Nowadays

Dupont is a scientific company transnational with a turnover 2005 of 26.6 billion dollars US, it employs: 60000 people in the world and is the 237e larger company in the United States. The activity of Dupont is organized in five branches, - electronic and technologies of communication, materials of execution, coatings and technologies of color, safety and protection, and agriculture and nutrition. In 2004, the company sold its textile activity in Koch industries, loser some of his most known marks like Lycra (Spandex), Dacron the polyester, Orlon the acrylic resin, Antron nylon and Thermolite.

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