Atlas Powder Company was an American explosives and chemicals company. It was one of the two companies that emerged out of a court-ordered breakup of the explosives monopoly of Du Pont Powder Company, the explosives and gunpowder company founded by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours.

History

Establishment

Based on the U.S. Justice Department's proposal, a

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court approved a decree on June 13, 1912, that ordered the division of Du Pont Powder Company into three independent entities. The decision concluded an anti-monopoly case filed by the United States government against the company under the

Sherman Antitrust Act The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce. It was passed by Congress and is named for Senator John Sherman, its principal author. Th ...

. These three new companies, which became independent companies and substantial competitors, were called

Hercules Powder Company Hercules, Inc. was a chemical and munitions manufacturing company based in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, incorporated in 1912 as the Hercules Powder Company following the breakup of the DuPont explosives monopoly by the U.S. Circuit ...

, Atlas Powder Company, and the du Pont de Nemours Powder Company. Atlas was officially incorporated on October 18, 1912, in Wilmington, Delaware. However, Pierre and Irenee DuPont, president and vice-president of DuPont, still owned large blocks of stock in the company as was in the case of Hercules.

Expansion

Atlas Powder Company and Hercules competed with DuPont in the manufacture of dynamite and black powder. It purchased Giant Powder Company in 1915, which continued to operate a production facility at

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until 1960. By 1919, Atlas Powder Company became a military supplier. During the years leading up to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, it was also Britain and France's main supplier of explosives. It delivered 37 million pounds of

ammonium nitrate Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is a white crystalline salt consisting of ions of ammonium and nitrate. It is highly soluble in water and hygroscopic as a solid, although it does not form hydrates. It is ...

as well as acids and nitro cotton. It became one of the five major companies that served the American munitions market. The company worked for the U.S. government. An example was its operation of a plant in Maryland, which was built by the

United States Ordnance Department The United States Army Ordnance Corps, formerly the United States Army Ordnance Department, is a sustainment branch of the United States Army, headquartered at Fort Lee, Virginia. The broad mission of the Ordnance Corps is to supply Army comb ...

. This facility produced 452,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate. Along with Hercules Powder Company and DuPont Company, Atlas Powder Company also supported the

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

armies during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Employment at Atlas reached its greatest peak during this period, reaching 1,617 in 1947. This number declined with the decreasing use of

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. Atlas Powder Company was renamed as Atlas Chemical Industries, which became a corporate predecessor of

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, through an acquisition by

Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. It was formed by the merger of four leading British chemical companies in 1926. Its headquarters were at M ...

Breakthroughs

Atlas Powder Company was given the exclusive right of use in the US of

Alfred Nobel Alfred Bernhard Nobel ( , ; 21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedes, Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and Philanthropy, philanthropist. He is best known for having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel ...

's patent of the dynamite in 1867, the same year that it was invented. Another technology attributed to the company was the HLB number scale, which was considered the first ever successful attempt of a quantitative characterization of the hydrophile-lipophile balance of different

surfactant Surfactants are chemical compounds that decrease the surface tension between two liquids, between a gas and a liquid, or interfacial tension between a liquid and a solid. Surfactants may act as detergents, wetting agents, emulsifiers, foaming ...

s. In collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh, it developed a stable polymorph of sorbitol during the 1960s. In 1984, Atlas Powder Company filed a patent infringement case against DuPont over an invention that featured a water-resistant emulsion-based blasting agent.

References

{{reflist Chemical companies of the United States Companies based in Wilmington, Delaware Manufacturing companies established in 1912 1912 establishments in Delaware Defunct manufacturing companies based in Delaware