From coal to DDT: the history of the development of the pesticide DDT from synthetic dyes till Silent Spring

Abstract

The controversial pesticide DDT arose out of a number of practical and conceptual developments in science and industry during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Here we trace its story back to experiments involving the industrial by-product coal tar, proceed to the development of modern organic chemistry and the establishment of an advanced dye industry, and go on to chart the attempt to identify and synthesize chemicals capable of killing the insects involved in human and crop diseases. This paper argues that work on the chemistry of coal tar played a significant role in the history of DDT because it helped bring about the scientific ideas and the practical objectives that led chemists to embark on the search for pesticides. It concludes by examining the Swiss-German DDT production industry in the early 1940s and the subsequent condemnation of DDT by an environmental movement epitomized by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.