Olin Chemical

My paternal grandfather was Frank Leahy, Chemist, Executive, Investor and major stockholder of Olin Chemical. We called him “Daddy Warbucks”.

The history of Olin Chemical is a case study in the changes US strategic Industries have experienced and how they evolved. See below.

In 1892, Franklin W. Olin, a Vermont-born engineer who was educated at Cornell University, founded the Equitable Powder Company in East Alton, Illinois. A predecessor of Olin Industries, Equitable Powder supplied blasting powder to Midwestern coal fields. The powder company soon expanded into small arms ammunition, and the Western Cartridge Company was formed in 1898.

During the First World War, Western built a brass mill to supply the great demand for brass for military cartridges. When the war ended, Western turned to "tailor-made" brass and other copper alloys to absorb excess production capacity. Olin Brass continues to produce a wide range of copper and copper-based alloy sheet, strip, tube and fabricated products.

In 1931, Western completed its integration into small arms and ammunition with its purchase of the legendary Winchester Repeating Arms Co., which had been founded in New Haven, CT, in 1866. Winchester also greatly expanded production during World War I, but to absorb the excess capacity and pay down debt it made a disastrous foray into manufacturing and selling hardware goods, from roller skates and refrigerators to batteries. This failed experiment eventually drove Winchester into receivership and led to its sale to the Olins and Western Cartridge in 1931. The Olins quickly ended Winchester's foray into the hardware field, paring it down to its core competencies in arms and ammunition.

Winchester-Western made major contributions to Allied Forces in World War II by manufacturing 15 billion rounds of ammunition and also developing the U.S. carbine and M-1 rifle. By the end of the war, Winchester-Western employed 62,000 people, including those at plants operated for the government.

Mathieson Chemical Corporation had charted an equally impressive path to success since its founding in 1892. At that time, seven U.S. businessmen formed the Mathieson Alkali Works of Saltville, VA, where they built a plant to produce soda ash from local deposits of salt, coal and limestone. Working with them on the plant's design was a young British engineer, Thomas Mathieson. His father, Neil Mathieson, an English chemical manufacturer, sold the U.S. group the rights to a process to produce alkalis in the U.S.

On July 4, 1895, Mathieson shipped its first soda ash from Saltville to eastern U.S. glass, textile and paper industries. A year later, the company began producing the nation's first commercially available bleaching powder, a chlorine product derived by the electrolysis of salt brine. On Thanksgiving Day in 1897, Mathieson started up a plant at Niagara Falls, NY, to produce chlor-alkali products. That initial plant, just like Olin's current operations in Niagara Falls, benefited from the Falls' low-cost hydroelectric power. Mathieson's

growing expertise in chlor-alkali products eventually led to such products as today's HTH swimming pool and spa sanitizer, one of the leading brands of calcium hypochlorite pool sanitizers in the world.

In 1909, Mathieson began the first commercial production of liquefied chlorine, and in 1923 it built one of the first synthetic ammonia plants. During World War II, chlorine and other alkali chemicals were used for water purification and sanitation of military medical equipment in the field. In 1949, Mathieson began a strategy of expansion into industrial and agricultural chemicals when it became a producer of sulfuric acid, fertilizers and pesticides. In 1950 it built a plant in Brandenburg, KY, to process natural gas into organic chemicals. Also, it added a plant in McIntosh, AL, for chlorine and caustic soda.

Mathieson continued its expansion with its acquisition in 1952 of the pharmaceutical firm E.R. Squibb & Sons. This acquisition was not as far afield as one might think, for the production of medicines requires much the same exacting skills as the production of specialty chemicals. Moreover, chlorine is a vital precursor chemical in 85% of all pharmaceutical products. Squibb also provided Mathieson with a complete international sales organization and overseas production plants, expertise that was vital to growing Mathieson's international presence. Squibb remained a part of the Olin empire until it was spun off in 1968 as a separate company.

For example, based on its 50 years of experience in cellulose-based products such as explosives, Olin in 1949 entered the cellophane business. In a related move into cellulose products, Olin in 1951 acquired the properties of Frost Lumber Industries of Louisiana and

Arkansas, including 440,000 acres of timberlands. Olin around this time also acquired Ecusta Paper Corporation in Pisgah Forest, NC, a leading producer of fine papers for everything from cigarettes to the Bible.

In 1952, Olin's interest in powder technology led it to purchase Ramset Fasteners, a producer of powder-actuated building tools (such as nail guns) and fastening systems. As a result of these and other initiatives, Olin Industries in the early 1950s was comprised of businesses in brass and other non-ferrous alloys, arms and ammunition, explosives, cellophane, fine papers, construction fastening systems and forest products.

The various Olin businesses were brought together in 1944 under the new corporate name of Olin Industries, Inc. With the retirement of founder Franklin Olin from active management, his sons John and Spencer went on to guide the company through a remarkable period of

expansion. Olin's core products and technologies remained metals and ammunition, but it periodically expanded into related businesses.

On October 5, 2015, Olin acquired The Dow Chemical Company’s US chlor alkali and vinyls, global epoxy and chlorinated organics businesses.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader