Dow Bromine Process Is Historic Landmark

Abstract

The bustling freeways and urban sprawl of Michigan's lower peninsula obscure its 19th-century history as part of the vast—and mostly emptyfrontier that stretched west from the Allegheny Mountains. But in the late-19th century, chemical industry pioneers—Herbert H. Dow, especially—began to transform this woodsy outback into a powerhouse for the nation's economic growth and a locus for one of its most continuously successful industries. Drawing on the region's natural resources as well as his own pluck, inventiveness, and dedication to efficiency, Dow reinvented the manufacturing process for bromine and other industrial chemicals. His work and business acumen allowed him to break the stranglehold of powerful European cartels that dominated world chemical production, and it set the stage for the fledgling U.S. chemical industry to develop, manufacture, and market its own products. Dow's process for producing bromine electrolytically was recently lauded as another of the National Historic Chemical Landmarks e...