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Trojan Powder Company

The Trojan Powder Company was an American manufacturer of explosives founded in 1904 that made nitro-starch powder. It had a manufacturing complex in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and another facility at Roberts Landing near San Lorenzo, California.

Trojan Powder Company
IndustryExplosives manufacturing
Founded1905 (1905) in Paulsboro, New Jersey, U.S.
FounderJesse B. Bronstein
Defunct1967 (1967)
FateAcquired
ProductsExplosive powder, other chemicals

The company thrived during World War I (1914–18), continued research and development in the interwar-period, and during World War II operated a large facility in Sandusky, Ohio, under contract to the army. After the war, production scaled back. A facility in Oregon was sold for use by the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant. In 1967, Trojan Powders became a division of Commercial Solvents Corporation (CSC). It was later acquired by the Ensign-Bickford Company.

History edit

 
Roberts Landing plant c. 1922

Chemists F.B. Holmes and Jesse B. Bronstein discovered how to produce a stable nitrostarch while working at DuPont's Eastern Laboratories.[1] Between 1905 and 1908, Holmes obtained various patents related to stabilization of nitrostarch powders.[2] Because the powder did not contain glycerol, it would not freeze and was non-toxic.

The powder quickly became widely used for mining, tunneling and quarrying. General Harry C. Texler, a cement manufacturer and one of the organizers of Trojan, used the powder in large quantities. The Panama Canal project used huge quantities of nitrostarch.[3] Walter O. Snelling, who became director of research at Trojan, worked for the U.S. Bureau of Mines on some aspects of the Panama Canal project, and invented a detonator that could be fired underwater.[3]

J. B. Bronstein left DuPont and founded the Non-Freezing Powder Company in 1905.[2] Bronstein was the first president of the company.[4] He built a small-scale plant that produced some commercial explosives in Paulsboro, New Jersey.[2] After a fire, the company relocated to Allentown, Pennsylvania as the Allentown Non-Freezing Powder Company.[1] The company was incorporated in New Jersey on September 13, 1905 with 1,000 shares at a par value of $100 each.[5] It built a commercial nitrostarch explosives manufacturing plant in Seiple, Pennsylvania, near Allentown[2] The parent Trojan Safety Powder Company was incorporated in the State of New York in 1906, and became the Trojan Powder Company in 1907.[4]

The Pacific High Explosives Company was incorporated in California on 25 April 1906, and built a plant at Roberts Landing in San Leandro, California to manufacture Trojan powder.[2] This was the only western plant of the New York-based Trojan Powder Company.[6] On November 23, 1906, most of the apparatus for the new Trojan powder works at Overton, eight miles north of Pueblo, Colorado had arrived. The buildings were almost completed and it was thought that the manufacture of powder would be started before 1 December.[7] The products of the Trojan Powder Factory were shipped on the Southern Pacific railway from the San Lorenzo railroad station.[8]

The Allentown subsidiary changed its name to the Pennsylvania Trojan Powder Company on 2 October 1909.[5] In 1912, Pacific High Explosives reorganized as California Trojan Powder Company.[1] In 1913 Trojan powder was provided to all primary lookouts in Rogue River National Forest for use in signaling when a fire was seen, assuming the phone lines were out of order. The signalling method was never put to the test, and a report on the experiment was highly skeptical about whether it would have worked.[9] An advertisement on 17 May 1913 for the Trojan Powder Company of Allentown, PA. listed the principal sales offices as New York City, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Denver and Portland, Oregon. The company had powder mills in Allentown, California. and Colorado.[10]

World War I edit

 
Panoramic view of the Trojan Powder Company plant near Allentown, Pennsylvania, c. 1918
 
The Mk 1 grenade, used during World War I andlater replaced by the Mk 2 grenade

During World War I (1914–18) the Trojan Chemical Company expanded the plant in Allentown to manufacture explosives and load them into grenades and mortar shells.[11] The company prospered during the war.[4] Trojan was one of a small number of explosives companies at the time, and obtained large orders from the British, French and Italians. Demand increased when the United States entered the war in 1917.[3]

The haberdasher Thomas Koch (died 1915) was a member of the board of Pennsylvania Trojan Powder Company.[12] In 1917 William E. Hall was president of the Trojan Powder Company, the Trojan Chemical Company and the Stackpole Carbon Company.[13]Walter O. Snelling (1880–1965), a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey (1907–10) and the Bureau of Mines (1910–12) joined the Trojan Powder Company in 1917 after a period of self-employment.[4]

The Ordnance Department of the U.S. Army wanted to find an explosive that would be nearly as good as TNT for grenades. Tests summarized in a report of 3 December 1917 showed that the Trojan Explosive was in several ways superior to TNT.[14] Trojan won the contract to make all the powder used in U.S. hand-grenades, and to load the powder into the grenades.[3] The Pennsylvania Trojan Powder Company stepped up expansion of their plants in California and Pennsylvania to create the required capacity. By the time the Armistice was signed in November 1918 the company had the capacity to make over 50,000,000 pounds (23,000,000 kg) per year of Trojan Grenade Powder and Trojan Mortar Shell Explosive.[15] Trojan also supplied powder for "airplane drop-bombs".[3]

Inter-war period edit

 
1921 Catalog Entry

After World War I, the eastern and western companies merged into the Trojan Powder Company, and continued to refine processes to manufacture a satisfactory stable product. A number of permissible nitrostarch-type compounds were approved by the Bureau of Mines.[2] A 1929 letterhead listed offices in Allentown, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon.[16]

In January 1936, Trojan supplied nitrostarch explosive for test to compare this to TNT for the purpose of demolishing obsolete concrete structures of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the Norris Dam area.[17] The conclusion was that nitrostarch had similar performance to TNT at half the price. Although more expensive than dynamite, in some situations it could be a cost-effective alternative.[18] Jesse B. Bronstein Jr., son of the founder, joined Trojan in 1937, and would become its president in 1961.[19]

World War II edit

In 1940, the Trojan Powder Company obtained a contract to operate the Plum Brook Ordnance Works in Sandusky, Ohio.[4] Trojan operated the works from December 1941 to September 1945 during which period it produced over 1 billion pounds of nitroaromatic explosives.[20] These included trinitrotoluene (TNT), dinitrotoluene (DNT), and pentolite. The factory operated around the clock, seven days a week throughout the remainder of the war.[21] The United States Army Ordnance Department took back control of the site in December 1945 and started decontamination.[20]

Snelling represented Trojan at Plum Brook. In 1942, he discovered the TNT could be used instead of silver salts to coat photographic paper.[22] During World War II, Trojan was among the companies making pentaerythritol, a precursor to the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate.[23] Snelling worked for Trojan until retiring in 1954.[4]

Post-World War II edit

 
Walter O. Snelling directed research until 1954

After the war Trojan continued production of pentaerythritol, now used as a raw material for synthetic resins.[23] On 7 January 1947 the New York Times reported that three ex-employees from the Sandusky plant were suing Trojan for $30 million in back pay plus damages on behalf of 10,000 workers.[24]

Trojan Powder had a plant at 400 E. Highland Ave. in San Bernardino, California that was destroying in a forest fire in November 1956. Most of the explosives were removed before the fire reached the site.The San Bernardino plant was in operation as late as 1961.[1] Trojan's Roberts Landing factory closed in 1964.[25] Extensive clean-up of the contaminated soil was required before the site could be used for a residential development and restored marshlands.[26] The Trojan Powder Works manufactured gunpowder and dynamite on a 634 acres (257 ha) site beside the Columbia River, a distance of 4 miles (6.4 km) from Rainier, Oregon. In 1967, Portland General Electric chose the site as the location of the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant.[27]

Spanish Fork, Utah is about 4 miles (6.4 km) to the southeast of Springville.[28] Trojan acquired a plant near the entrance to Spanish Fork Canyon, previously owned by Cytec Industries of Delaware and Mallinckdrodt Inc. of New York.[29] Trojan produced nitrostarch there from 1964 to 1976.[30] As of 1967 Trojan had 800 employees. Facilities included plants at Seiple, Pennsylvania, Wolf Lake, Illinois and Springville, Utah.

Trojan produced formaldehyde, pentaerythritol, polyols used in alkyd resins, synthetic drying oils, vinyl stabilizers, fire retardant coatings, organic nitrates used in rocket propellants, and inorganic chemicals for various purposes.[19]

Takeover and legacy edit

On September 1, 1967 Commercial Solvents Corporation (CSC) completed a purchase of Trojan Powder, which became a division of CSC. The sale had been agreed in principle on 6 July 1967 by CSC President Robert C. Wheeler and Trojan Powder President Jesse B. Bronstein Jr., who continued as president of the new division. CSC said the Trojan products would be complementary to those of its McWhorter Chemicals division and U. S. Powder Company division.[19] CSC was merged into International Minerals and Chemical Company (IMC) in 1975.[31]

The Wolf Lake plant in Union County, Illinois had about 100 employees in the early 1980s, but was shut down in 1982. Ensign-Bickford bought it in 1988, and it had 240 employees by 1992.[32] Ensign-Bickford had bought the Spanish Fork Plant operations from the Trojan Corporation on 24 December 1986.[33] The Trojan Corporation was fully merged into the Ensign-Bickford Company on 1 January 1996.[33] The 480 acres (190 ha) explosive plant at the entrance to Spanish Fork Canyon in Utah had contaminated the groundwater and soil. Ensign-Bickford closed the Spanish Fork plant in 2006 and began clean-up in preparation for a mixed-used development with 1,000 homes.[34]

The Trojan Powder Company Building at 17-19 North 7th Street, Allentown was an 11-story steel frame building with a brick facade, completed in 1911.[35] This building and the adjacent Allentown National Bank were abandoned by the 1990s and remnained empty until 2005, when they opened as a unified senior living apartment complex.[36]

Explosions edit

The company experienced a number of explosions, all apparently accidental.

1907 Henry Jorgensen died in an explosion in the Roberts Landing factory, He was buried in the San Lorenzo, California Pioneer Cemetery.[37]
1910 On 17 February 1910, the Trojan Powder Works at Roberts Landing, California blew up just before 11:00 a.m. Five men were killed at once and three died later at the county infirmary. There were two small, sharp explosions, then a huge explosion so powerful it broke all the windows in the San Leandro School, 2 miles (3.2 km) away.[6]
1916 The Penn Trojan Powder Company, at Iron Bridge, near Allentown, covered several hundred acres and held nine 15 by 30 feet (4.6 by 9.1 m) sheet iron drying building. Every morning and every evening the buildings were loaded with 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of wet dynamite composition. Hot air forced into the sheds would dry the composition over a period of 12 hours. On 9 December 1916 there was an explosion at the Iron Bridge plant, and three men were killed.[38]
1918 On 14 August 1918, there was an explosion at the Trojan dryer building in the Seiple plant, South Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania that killed five men. The cause was not determined.[39]
1922 On 5 January 1922, the Oakland Tribune reported that the previous day two massive explosives had killed four employees at the Trojan Powder Works in Roberts Landing. The storehouses and dryer had been reduced to piles of splintered wood. Windows were broken in nearby houses.[40]
1940 On 12 November 1940, three workers were killed by an explosion at the cap-packing shed in the Seiple plant.[39] The men were working in the one-story building making detonators for blasting at the time of the explosion. The company said they did not suspect sabotage, since the work was not related to defense.[41]
1963 On 16 March 1963, three men were killed in an explosion at the Seiple plant.[39]
2005 In August 2005, a truck coming from the Trojan plant at Spanish Fork Canyon, Utah blew up and created a huge crater in Highway 6.[42]

Notes edit

Sources edit

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  • Adams, Jane H. (1994), The Transformation of Rural Life: Southern Illinois, 1890-1990, Univ of North Carolina Press, ISBN 978-0-8078-4479-3, retrieved 5 August 2019
  • Agreed Order No. DE 9514, 2013, retrieved 2019-08-01
  • Alexander, Nancy (17 July 2014), "The Trojan Powder Company", Highland Community News, retrieved 2019-08-02
  • , Emporis, archived from the original on July 5, 2016, retrieved 2019-08-05
  • Allentown Center Square, Pennrose, retrieved 2019-08-02
  • "Ask $15,000,000 Back Pay; Trojan Powder Ex-Workers Put In 10-Hour-a-Day Bill", The New York Times, 7 January 1947, retrieved 2019-08-02
  • Breen, William J. (1997), Labor Market Politics and the Great War: The Department of Labor, the States, and the First U.S. Employment Service, 1907-1933, Kent State University Press, ISBN 978-0-87338-559-6, retrieved 2 August 2019
  • Brown, Carroll E. (1985), History of the Rogue River National Forest, Department of Agriculture, retrieved 2 August 2019
  • "Colorado News Items", Walsenburg World, XVIII (94), 23 November 1906, retrieved 2019-08-04 – via CHNC
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  • Corrective Action Order No. 0507019 (PDF), Utah Solid and Hazardous Waste Control Board, 2005, retrieved 2019-08-05
  • "CSC Purchases Trojan Powder", The Monroe News-Star, Monroe, Louisiana, 1 September 1967, retrieved 2019-08-02
  • "Eight Blown To Awful Death", San Francisco Call, 107 (80), 18 February 1910, retrieved 2019-08-01
  • Evans, W.H. (9 June 1944), "Evans Relates Interesting History of Trojan Company In Talk For Local Groups", The Sandusky Register, Sandusky, Ohio, retrieved 2019-08-01 – via newspapers.com
  • Former Plum Brook Ordnance Works, Sandusky, Ohio (Currently NASA Plum Brook Station) (PDF), USACE Huntington, November 2015, retrieved 2019-08-02
  • Gustaitis, Rasa (31 August 2012), San Francisco Bay Shoreline Guide: A State Coastal Conservancy Book: Access Maps to the Entire San Francisco Bay Trail, Univ of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-27436-5, retrieved 1 August 2019
  • Trojan Chemical Company loading plant, war workers, plant officials, and employees panoramic photograph, Hagley Museum and Library: Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department, 1969, retrieved 2019-08-01
  • Jones, Carolyn (10 October 2014), "Eeriest place in Bay Area: A place of death in San Lorenzo", SFGATE, retrieved 2019-08-02
  • Linkswiler, Gilbert E. (July–August 1936), "Demolition Tests in the Tennessee Valley", The Military Engineer, Society of American Military Engineers, 28 (160): 266–268, JSTOR 44563785
  • Johnson, Howard C. E. (June 1947), [Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/24960712 "Glycerine and Glycols Gain Ground"], Scientific American, 176 (6): 259–261, Bibcode:1947SciAm.176..259J, doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0647-259, JSTOR 24960712 – via JSTOR {{citation}}: Check |url= value (help)
  • Mangravite, Andrew (2008), Papers of Walter O. Snelling (PDF), Philadelphia: Chemical Heritage Foundation Archives, retrieved 2019-08-01
  • Mangravite, Andrew (28 April 2016), Visual Evidence: An unusual relic from CHF's archives offers a fuller picture of a chemist's life and work, Science History Institute, retrieved 2019-08-02
  • Ranvestel, Anthony W.; Burr, Brooks M. (2004), "Conservation Assessment for Bluehead Shiner (Pteronotropis hubbsi)" (PDF), American Currents, 30 (1), retrieved 2019-08-05
  • Reichman, Matt (3 June 2010), "State nears OK on explosives plant cleanup in Spanish Fork", Daily Herald, Provo, Utah, retrieved 2019-08-05
  • Rodger (17 November 2003), "Suit decries Mapleton pollution pact, Mapleton leaders say explosives residue still threat", Deseret News Utah, retrieved 2019-08-05
  • "6 Open Space, Parks and Conservation", San Leandro city plan, City of San Leandro, 19 September 2016, retrieved 2019-08-02
  • "Spanish Fork Explosives Company To Shutdown", ksl.com, 18 September 2005, retrieved 2019-08-05
  • Stock, Jody; Corbett, Michael (July 2000), Unincorporated San Lorenzo Historical Building Survey, County of Alameda, retrieved 2019-08-02
  • Teitel, Amy Shira (19 March 2019), "The Women's Guide to ID Badge Placement (According to the Government in 1947)", Discover Magazine, retrieved 2019-08-02
  • "Three Men Killed: Blown to Pieces in Powder Explosion Saturday Near Allentown", The Wellsboro Agitator, Pennsylvania, 13 December 1916, retrieved 2019-08-01
  • "Trojan Powder Company", The Allentown Leader, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 17 May 1913, retrieved 2019-08-04 – via newspapers.com
  • "Trojan Powder Company, San Francisco (Fletcher supplier)", Ed Fletcher Papers 1870-1955 MSS.81 Box: 31 Folder: 3, US San Diego, retrieved 2019-08-05
  • "Two Terrific Eastbay Explosions Kill Four Employees at Trojan Powder Co's Plant", Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, 5 June 1922, retrieved 2019-08-02
  • Utah Atlas & Gazetteer (9 ed.), DeLorme, 2014, ISBN 9780899332550
  • Van Gelder, Arthur Pine; Schlatter, Hugo (1927), "History of the Explosives Industry in America", Nature, Columbia University Press, 122 (3081): 765, Bibcode:1928Natur.122..765., doi:10.1038/122765a0, S2CID 19949823
  • West, Robert D. (16 May 2014), Trojan in Twilight: History, retrieved 2019-08-02
  • Whelan, Frank (23 February 1999), "Explosions Pepper Valley's History", The Morning Call, retrieved 2019-08-01
  • Whelan, Frank (16 March 2019), "History's Headlines: Getting 'rigged out' at Koch Brothers", WFMZ TV, retrieved 2019-08-02
  • Williams, William Bradford (1919), History of the manufacture of explosives for the Great War, 1917-1918, United States. Army. Ordnance Dept, retrieved 2019-08-01

trojan, powder, company, american, manufacturer, explosives, founded, 1904, that, made, nitro, starch, powder, manufacturing, complex, allentown, pennsylvania, another, facility, roberts, landing, near, lorenzo, california, industryexplosives, manufacturingfou. The Trojan Powder Company was an American manufacturer of explosives founded in 1904 that made nitro starch powder It had a manufacturing complex in Allentown Pennsylvania and another facility at Roberts Landing near San Lorenzo California Trojan Powder CompanyIndustryExplosives manufacturingFounded1905 1905 in Paulsboro New Jersey U S FounderJesse B BronsteinDefunct1967 1967 FateAcquiredProductsExplosive powder other chemicalsThe company thrived during World War I 1914 18 continued research and development in the interwar period and during World War II operated a large facility in Sandusky Ohio under contract to the army After the war production scaled back A facility in Oregon was sold for use by the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant In 1967 Trojan Powders became a division of Commercial Solvents Corporation CSC It was later acquired by the Ensign Bickford Company Contents 1 History 1 1 World War I 1 2 Inter war period 2 World War II 2 1 Post World War II 3 Takeover and legacy 4 Explosions 5 Notes 6 SourcesHistory edit nbsp Roberts Landing plant c 1922Chemists F B Holmes and Jesse B Bronstein discovered how to produce a stable nitrostarch while working at DuPont s Eastern Laboratories 1 Between 1905 and 1908 Holmes obtained various patents related to stabilization of nitrostarch powders 2 Because the powder did not contain glycerol it would not freeze and was non toxic The powder quickly became widely used for mining tunneling and quarrying General Harry C Texler a cement manufacturer and one of the organizers of Trojan used the powder in large quantities The Panama Canal project used huge quantities of nitrostarch 3 Walter O Snelling who became director of research at Trojan worked for the U S Bureau of Mines on some aspects of the Panama Canal project and invented a detonator that could be fired underwater 3 J B Bronstein left DuPont and founded the Non Freezing Powder Company in 1905 2 Bronstein was the first president of the company 4 He built a small scale plant that produced some commercial explosives in Paulsboro New Jersey 2 After a fire the company relocated to Allentown Pennsylvania as the Allentown Non Freezing Powder Company 1 The company was incorporated in New Jersey on September 13 1905 with 1 000 shares at a par value of 100 each 5 It built a commercial nitrostarch explosives manufacturing plant in Seiple Pennsylvania near Allentown 2 The parent Trojan Safety Powder Company was incorporated in the State of New York in 1906 and became the Trojan Powder Company in 1907 4 The Pacific High Explosives Company was incorporated in California on 25 April 1906 and built a plant at Roberts Landing in San Leandro California to manufacture Trojan powder 2 This was the only western plant of the New York based Trojan Powder Company 6 On November 23 1906 most of the apparatus for the new Trojan powder works at Overton eight miles north of Pueblo Colorado had arrived The buildings were almost completed and it was thought that the manufacture of powder would be started before 1 December 7 The products of the Trojan Powder Factory were shipped on the Southern Pacific railway from the San Lorenzo railroad station 8 The Allentown subsidiary changed its name to the Pennsylvania Trojan Powder Company on 2 October 1909 5 In 1912 Pacific High Explosives reorganized as California Trojan Powder Company 1 In 1913 Trojan powder was provided to all primary lookouts in Rogue River National Forest for use in signaling when a fire was seen assuming the phone lines were out of order The signalling method was never put to the test and a report on the experiment was highly skeptical about whether it would have worked 9 An advertisement on 17 May 1913 for the Trojan Powder Company of Allentown PA listed the principal sales offices as New York City San Francisco Salt Lake City Denver and Portland Oregon The company had powder mills in Allentown California and Colorado 10 World War I edit nbsp Panoramic view of the Trojan Powder Company plant near Allentown Pennsylvania c 1918 nbsp The Mk 1 grenade used during World War I andlater replaced by the Mk 2 grenadeDuring World War I 1914 18 the Trojan Chemical Company expanded the plant in Allentown to manufacture explosives and load them into grenades and mortar shells 11 The company prospered during the war 4 Trojan was one of a small number of explosives companies at the time and obtained large orders from the British French and Italians Demand increased when the United States entered the war in 1917 3 The haberdasher Thomas Koch died 1915 was a member of the board of Pennsylvania Trojan Powder Company 12 In 1917 William E Hall was president of the Trojan Powder Company the Trojan Chemical Company and the Stackpole Carbon Company 13 Walter O Snelling 1880 1965 a scientist with the U S Geological Survey 1907 10 and the Bureau of Mines 1910 12 joined the Trojan Powder Company in 1917 after a period of self employment 4 The Ordnance Department of the U S Army wanted to find an explosive that would be nearly as good as TNT for grenades Tests summarized in a report of 3 December 1917 showed that the Trojan Explosive was in several ways superior to TNT 14 Trojan won the contract to make all the powder used in U S hand grenades and to load the powder into the grenades 3 The Pennsylvania Trojan Powder Company stepped up expansion of their plants in California and Pennsylvania to create the required capacity By the time the Armistice was signed in November 1918 the company had the capacity to make over 50 000 000 pounds 23 000 000 kg per year of Trojan Grenade Powder and Trojan Mortar Shell Explosive 15 Trojan also supplied powder for airplane drop bombs 3 Inter war period edit nbsp 1921 Catalog EntryAfter World War I the eastern and western companies merged into the Trojan Powder Company and continued to refine processes to manufacture a satisfactory stable product A number of permissible nitrostarch type compounds were approved by the Bureau of Mines 2 A 1929 letterhead listed offices in Allentown New York Chicago San Francisco and Portland Oregon 16 In January 1936 Trojan supplied nitrostarch explosive for test to compare this to TNT for the purpose of demolishing obsolete concrete structures of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the Norris Dam area 17 The conclusion was that nitrostarch had similar performance to TNT at half the price Although more expensive than dynamite in some situations it could be a cost effective alternative 18 Jesse B Bronstein Jr son of the founder joined Trojan in 1937 and would become its president in 1961 19 World War II editIn 1940 the Trojan Powder Company obtained a contract to operate the Plum Brook Ordnance Works in Sandusky Ohio 4 Trojan operated the works from December 1941 to September 1945 during which period it produced over 1 billion pounds of nitroaromatic explosives 20 These included trinitrotoluene TNT dinitrotoluene DNT and pentolite The factory operated around the clock seven days a week throughout the remainder of the war 21 The United States Army Ordnance Department took back control of the site in December 1945 and started decontamination 20 Snelling represented Trojan at Plum Brook In 1942 he discovered the TNT could be used instead of silver salts to coat photographic paper 22 During World War II Trojan was among the companies making pentaerythritol a precursor to the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate 23 Snelling worked for Trojan until retiring in 1954 4 Post World War II edit nbsp Walter O Snelling directed research until 1954After the war Trojan continued production of pentaerythritol now used as a raw material for synthetic resins 23 On 7 January 1947 the New York Times reported that three ex employees from the Sandusky plant were suing Trojan for 30 million in back pay plus damages on behalf of 10 000 workers 24 Trojan Powder had a plant at 400 E Highland Ave in San Bernardino California that was destroying in a forest fire in November 1956 Most of the explosives were removed before the fire reached the site The San Bernardino plant was in operation as late as 1961 1 Trojan s Roberts Landing factory closed in 1964 25 Extensive clean up of the contaminated soil was required before the site could be used for a residential development and restored marshlands 26 The Trojan Powder Works manufactured gunpowder and dynamite on a 634 acres 257 ha site beside the Columbia River a distance of 4 miles 6 4 km from Rainier Oregon In 1967 Portland General Electric chose the site as the location of the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant 27 Spanish Fork Utah is about 4 miles 6 4 km to the southeast of Springville 28 Trojan acquired a plant near the entrance to Spanish Fork Canyon previously owned by Cytec Industries of Delaware and Mallinckdrodt Inc of New York 29 Trojan produced nitrostarch there from 1964 to 1976 30 As of 1967 Trojan had 800 employees Facilities included plants at Seiple Pennsylvania Wolf Lake Illinois and Springville Utah Trojan produced formaldehyde pentaerythritol polyols used in alkyd resins synthetic drying oils vinyl stabilizers fire retardant coatings organic nitrates used in rocket propellants and inorganic chemicals for various purposes 19 Takeover and legacy editOn September 1 1967 Commercial Solvents Corporation CSC completed a purchase of Trojan Powder which became a division of CSC The sale had been agreed in principle on 6 July 1967 by CSC President Robert C Wheeler and Trojan Powder President Jesse B Bronstein Jr who continued as president of the new division CSC said the Trojan products would be complementary to those of its McWhorter Chemicals division and U S Powder Company division 19 CSC was merged into International Minerals and Chemical Company IMC in 1975 31 The Wolf Lake plant in Union County Illinois had about 100 employees in the early 1980s but was shut down in 1982 Ensign Bickford bought it in 1988 and it had 240 employees by 1992 32 Ensign Bickford had bought the Spanish Fork Plant operations from the Trojan Corporation on 24 December 1986 33 The Trojan Corporation was fully merged into the Ensign Bickford Company on 1 January 1996 33 The 480 acres 190 ha explosive plant at the entrance to Spanish Fork Canyon in Utah had contaminated the groundwater and soil Ensign Bickford closed the Spanish Fork plant in 2006 and began clean up in preparation for a mixed used development with 1 000 homes 34 The Trojan Powder Company Building at 17 19 North 7th Street Allentown was an 11 story steel frame building with a brick facade completed in 1911 35 This building and the adjacent Allentown National Bank were abandoned by the 1990s and remnained empty until 2005 when they opened as a unified senior living apartment complex 36 Explosions editThe company experienced a number of explosions all apparently accidental 1907 Henry Jorgensen died in an explosion in the Roberts Landing factory He was buried in the San Lorenzo California Pioneer Cemetery 37 1910 On 17 February 1910 the Trojan Powder Works at Roberts Landing California blew up just before 11 00 a m Five men were killed at once and three died later at the county infirmary There were two small sharp explosions then a huge explosion so powerful it broke all the windows in the San Leandro School 2 miles 3 2 km away 6 1916 The Penn Trojan Powder Company at Iron Bridge near Allentown covered several hundred acres and held nine 15 by 30 feet 4 6 by 9 1 m sheet iron drying building Every morning and every evening the buildings were loaded with 1 000 pounds 450 kg of wet dynamite composition Hot air forced into the sheds would dry the composition over a period of 12 hours On 9 December 1916 there was an explosion at the Iron Bridge plant and three men were killed 38 1918 On 14 August 1918 there was an explosion at the Trojan dryer building in the Seiple plant South Whitehall Township Pennsylvania that killed five men The cause was not determined 39 1922 On 5 January 1922 the Oakland Tribune reported that the previous day two massive explosives had killed four employees at the Trojan Powder Works in Roberts Landing The storehouses and dryer had been reduced to piles of splintered wood Windows were broken in nearby houses 40 1940 On 12 November 1940 three workers were killed by an explosion at the cap packing shed in the Seiple plant 39 The men were working in the one story building making detonators for blasting at the time of the explosion The company said they did not suspect sabotage since the work was not related to defense 41 1963 On 16 March 1963 three men were killed in an explosion at the Seiple plant 39 2005 In August 2005 a truck coming from the Trojan plant at Spanish Fork Canyon Utah blew up and created a huge crater in Highway 6 42 Notes edit a b c d Alexander 2014 a b c d e f Van Gelder amp Schlatter 1927 pp 636 639 a b c d e Evans 1944 a b c d e f Mangravite 2008 p 2 a b Corporations of New Jersey 1914 p 16 a b Eight Blown To Awful Death 1910 Colorado News Items 1906 Stock amp Corbett 2000 Brown 1985 p 171 Trojan Powder Company Allentown Leader 1913 p 19 Hagley Museum and Library 1969 Whelan 2019 Breen 1997 p 179 Williams 1919 p 23 Williams 1919 p 24 Trojan Powder Company SF 1929 p 7 Linkswiler 1936 p 266 Linkswiler 1936 p 268 a b c CSC Purchases Trojan Powder a b Former Plum Brook Ordnance Works Teitel 2019 Mangravite 2016 a b Johnson 1947 p 260 Ask 15 000 000 Back Pay 1947 San Leandro city plan 2016 p 6 22 Gustaitis 2012 p 87 West 2014 Utah Atlas amp Gazetteer 2014 p 25 Rodger 2003 Corrective Action Order No 0507019 p 2 Agreed Order No DE 9514 p 5 Adams 1994 p 240 a b Corrective Action Order No 0507019 p 1 Reichman 2010 Allentown Center Square Emporis Allentown Center Square Pennrose Jones 2014 Three Men Killed 1916 a b c Whelan 1999 Two Terrific Eastbay Explosions 3 Blown to Bits Spanish Fork Explosives Company To Shutdown nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Trojan Powder Company Sources edit 3 Blown to Bits Other Explosion Fatal to 8 PDF The Brainerd Daily Dispatch 12 November 1940 retrieved 2019 08 02 Adams Jane H 1994 The Transformation of Rural Life Southern Illinois 1890 1990 Univ of North Carolina Press ISBN 978 0 8078 4479 3 retrieved 5 August 2019 Agreed Order No DE 9514 2013 retrieved 2019 08 01 Alexander Nancy 17 July 2014 The Trojan Powder Company Highland Community News retrieved 2019 08 02 Allentown Center Square Emporis archived from the original on July 5 2016 retrieved 2019 08 05 Allentown Center Square Pennrose retrieved 2019 08 02 Ask 15 000 000 Back Pay Trojan Powder Ex Workers Put In 10 Hour a Day Bill The New York Times 7 January 1947 retrieved 2019 08 02 Breen William J 1997 Labor Market Politics and the Great War The Department of Labor the States and the First U S Employment Service 1907 1933 Kent State University Press ISBN 978 0 87338 559 6 retrieved 2 August 2019 Brown Carroll E 1985 History of the Rogue River National Forest Department of Agriculture retrieved 2 August 2019 Colorado News Items Walsenburg World XVIII 94 23 November 1906 retrieved 2019 08 04 via CHNC Corporations of New Jersey Trenton NJ The Secretary of State 1914 retrieved 2019 08 05 Corrective Action Order No 0507019 PDF Utah Solid and Hazardous Waste Control Board 2005 retrieved 2019 08 05 CSC Purchases Trojan Powder The Monroe News Star Monroe Louisiana 1 September 1967 retrieved 2019 08 02 Eight Blown To Awful Death San Francisco Call 107 80 18 February 1910 retrieved 2019 08 01 Evans W H 9 June 1944 Evans Relates Interesting History of Trojan Company In Talk For Local Groups The Sandusky Register Sandusky Ohio retrieved 2019 08 01 via newspapers com Former Plum Brook Ordnance Works Sandusky Ohio Currently NASA Plum Brook Station PDF USACE Huntington November 2015 retrieved 2019 08 02 Gustaitis Rasa 31 August 2012 San Francisco Bay Shoreline Guide A State Coastal Conservancy Book Access Maps to the Entire San Francisco Bay Trail Univ of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 27436 5 retrieved 1 August 2019 Trojan Chemical Company loading plant war workers plant officials and employees panoramic photograph Hagley Museum and Library Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department 1969 retrieved 2019 08 01 Jones Carolyn 10 October 2014 Eeriest place in Bay Area A place of death in San Lorenzo SFGATE retrieved 2019 08 02 Linkswiler Gilbert E July August 1936 Demolition Tests in the Tennessee Valley The Military Engineer Society of American Military Engineers 28 160 266 268 JSTOR 44563785 Johnson Howard C E June 1947 Stable URL https www jstor org stable 10 2307 24960712 Glycerine and Glycols Gain Ground Scientific American 176 6 259 261 Bibcode 1947SciAm 176 259J doi 10 1038 scientificamerican0647 259 JSTOR 24960712 via JSTOR a href Template Citation html title Template Citation citation a Check url value help Mangravite Andrew 2008 Papers of Walter O Snelling PDF Philadelphia Chemical Heritage Foundation Archives retrieved 2019 08 01 Mangravite Andrew 28 April 2016 Visual Evidence An unusual relic from CHF s archives offers a fuller picture of a chemist s life and work Science History Institute retrieved 2019 08 02 Ranvestel Anthony W Burr Brooks M 2004 Conservation Assessment for Bluehead Shiner Pteronotropis hubbsi PDF American Currents 30 1 retrieved 2019 08 05 Reichman Matt 3 June 2010 State nears OK on explosives plant cleanup in Spanish Fork Daily Herald Provo Utah retrieved 2019 08 05 Rodger 17 November 2003 Suit decries Mapleton pollution pact Mapleton leaders say explosives residue still threat Deseret News Utah retrieved 2019 08 05 6 Open Space Parks and Conservation San Leandro city plan City of San Leandro 19 September 2016 retrieved 2019 08 02 Spanish Fork Explosives Company To Shutdown ksl com 18 September 2005 retrieved 2019 08 05 Stock Jody Corbett Michael July 2000 Unincorporated San Lorenzo Historical Building Survey County of Alameda retrieved 2019 08 02 Teitel Amy Shira 19 March 2019 The Women s Guide to ID Badge Placement According to the Government in 1947 Discover Magazine retrieved 2019 08 02 Three Men Killed Blown to Pieces in Powder Explosion Saturday Near Allentown The Wellsboro Agitator Pennsylvania 13 December 1916 retrieved 2019 08 01 Trojan Powder Company The Allentown Leader Allentown Pennsylvania 17 May 1913 retrieved 2019 08 04 via newspapers com Trojan Powder Company San Francisco Fletcher supplier Ed Fletcher Papers 1870 1955 MSS 81 Box 31 Folder 3 US San Diego retrieved 2019 08 05 Two Terrific Eastbay Explosions Kill Four Employees at Trojan Powder Co s Plant Oakland Tribune Oakland California 5 June 1922 retrieved 2019 08 02 Utah Atlas amp Gazetteer 9 ed DeLorme 2014 ISBN 9780899332550 Van Gelder Arthur Pine Schlatter Hugo 1927 History of the Explosives Industry in America Nature Columbia University Press 122 3081 765 Bibcode 1928Natur 122 765 doi 10 1038 122765a0 S2CID 19949823 West Robert D 16 May 2014 Trojan in Twilight History retrieved 2019 08 02 Whelan Frank 23 February 1999 Explosions Pepper Valley s History The Morning Call retrieved 2019 08 01 Whelan Frank 16 March 2019 History s Headlines Getting rigged out at Koch Brothers WFMZ TV retrieved 2019 08 02 Williams William Bradford 1919 History of the manufacture of explosives for the Great War 1917 1918 United States Army Ordnance Dept retrieved 2019 08 01 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Trojan Powder Company amp oldid 1184345084, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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