Hooker Chemical Company (or Hooker Electrochemical Company) was an American firm producing chloralkali products from 1903 to 1968. In 1922, bought the S. Wander & Sons Company to sell lye and chlorinated lime. The company became notorious in the 1960s, when residents near its chemical waste site,

Love Canal Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, United States, infamous as the location of a landfill that became the site of an enormous environmental disaster in the 1970s. Decades of dumping toxic chemicals harmed the health of hun ...

, reported extraordinarily high incidences of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

, birth defects, and other injuries. Although Hooker had sold its old chemical waste dump site in 1953, the company was held responsible as a result of a lawsuit thereafter.

History

Founding

Founded in 1903 as "the Development and Funding Company" by

Elon Huntington Hooker Elon Huntington Hooker (December 23, 1869 – May 10, 1938) was the founder of Hooker Chemical Company, Hooker Electrochemical Company. Biography From a New England family, Elon Hooker obtained degrees in civil engineering from the Universit ...

, of Rochester, NY, the company used the Townsend cell to electrolyse salt into chlorine and sodium hydroxide (NaOH), also known as "caustic soda" and "lye," in a

chloralkali process The chloralkali process (also chlor-alkali and chlor alkali) is an industrial process for the electrolysis of sodium chloride (NaCl) solutions. It is the technology used to produce chlorine and sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), which are commodit ...

. Elmer Sperry, founder of Sperry Electric, and

Leo Baekeland Leo Hendrik Baekeland (November 14, 1863 – February 23, 1944) was a Belgian chemist. He is best known for the inventions of Velox photographic paper in 1893, and Bakelite in 1907. He has been called "The Father of the Plastics Industry ...

, inventor of Bakelite and Velox photographic paper, consulted Hooker to improve the design of the cell. The company was sited in

Niagara Falls, NY Niagara Falls is a city in Niagara County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 48,671. It is adjacent to the Niagara River, across from the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and named after the famed ...

foremost because of the low-cost electricity from the Niagara Falls power project, but also because of the abundance of salt from nearby mines, and availability of water from the Niagara River.

First product lines

Chlorine, used for sanitation and the chlorination of drinking water, was sold as chlorinated lime and

chlorobenzene Chlorobenzene is an aromatic organic compound with the chemical formula C6H5Cl. This colorless, flammable liquid is a common solvent and a widely used intermediate in the manufacture of other chemicals. Uses Historical The major use of chloro ...

, which was an ingredient for an explosive used in World War I. Later, solvents like trichloroethylene and phenol were sold for use by the subsidiary degreasing and dry cleaning company Detrex. Hooker licensed his diaphragm cell technology to other chloralkali producers. In 1918, Hooker formed a company to hydrogenate vegetable oils, while Hooker Chemical also began producing sulfur chloride and

sodium chlorate Sodium chlorate is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Na ClO3. It is a white crystalline powder that is readily soluble in water. It is hygroscopic. It decomposes above 300 °C to release oxygen and leaves sodium chloride. Sever ...

. In 1922, Hooker bought the S. Wander & Sons Company for the retail sales of lye and chlorinated lime. Samuel Wander had a retail store at 105 Hudson St, New York, NY, and factories in Albany, NY. Hooker sold the business in 1927. Hooker built a new chloralkali plant in

Tacoma, WA Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Par ...

in 1929. Additional products, including

sodium sulfide Sodium sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula Na2 S, or more commonly its hydrate Na2S·9 H2O. Both the anhydrous and the hydrated salts in pure crystalline form are colorless solids, although technical grades of sodium sulfide are gen ...

sodium sulfhydrate Sodium hydrosulfide is the chemical compound with the formula NaHS. This compound is the product of the half-neutralization of hydrogen sulfide () with sodium hydroxide (NaOH). NaSH and sodium sulfide are used industrially, often for similar purp ...

sodium tetrasulfide Sodium tetrasulfide is an inorganic compound with the formula Na2S4. It is a yellow-orange solid that dissolves via hydrolysis in water. It is a precursor to some specialty polymers and intermediates in prototypes of the sodium-sulfur battery. ...

, and

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It h ...

chloride were produced by the company.

World War II

In World War II, Hooker was a leading supplier of dodecyl

mercaptan In organic chemistry, a thiol (; ), or thiol derivative, is any organosulfur compound of the form , where R represents an alkyl or other organic substituent. The functional group itself is referred to as either a thiol group or a sulfhydryl grou ...

for the synthesis of rubber. The company also produced arsenic trichloride,

thionyl chloride Thionyl chloride is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a moderately volatile, colourless liquid with an unpleasant acrid odour. Thionyl chloride is primarily used as a chlorinating reagent, with approximately per year bein ...

, and

hexachlorobenzene Hexachlorobenzene, or perchlorobenzene, is an organochloride with the molecular formula C6Cl6. It is a fungicide formerly used as a seed treatment, especially on wheat to control the fungal disease bunt. It has been banned globally under the Sto ...

. Hooker expanded into plastics manufacturing, developing epoxy

vinyl ester resin Vinyl ester resin, or often just vinyl ester, is a resin produced by the esterification of an epoxy resin with acrylic or methacrylic acids. The "vinyl" groups refer to these ester substituents, which are prone to polymerize and thus an inhibitor i ...

s, and in 1955 acquired a thermoset plastic phenolic resins business, called Durez Corp.

Sale to Occidental Petroleum

Occidental Petroleum Occidental Petroleum Corporation (often abbreviated Oxy in reference to its ticker symbol and logo) is an American company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration in the United States, and the Middle East as well as petrochemical manufacturing in t ...

Corporation purchased Hooker Chemical Company in 1968. Since then, owners have renamed the company several times.

Documentaries

In 2002, filmmaker David J. Ruck told the story of the Hooker Chemical Company and its environmental negligence in Montague, Michigan, in the documentary film,
This is Not a Chocolate Factory
' The films, '' The Killing Ground'' and ''A Fierce Green Fire,'' also explore the history of several of Hooker Chemical's dumping sites and the

tragedy.

References

{{Authority control Chemical companies of the United States Defunct manufacturing companies based in New York (state) American companies established in 1903 1968 disestablishments in New York (state) Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1968 Love Canal Chemical companies established in 1903 1903 establishments in New York (state) 1968 mergers and acquisitions

External Links

''A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet''
- Documentary film directed and written by Mark Kitchell. Explores 50 years of environmental activism in the USA. Inspired by the book of the same name by Philip Shabecoff.