Seaweed for War: California’s World War I Kelp Industry

Abstract

Seaweedfor War: California’s World War I Kelp Industry PETER NEUSHUL World War I created both an extensive demand for chemicals and a severe shortage of supplies to meet that demand, especially for explosives. When hostilities began in August 1914, Germany was the leading manufacturer of chemicals and, in particular, controlled the world’s largest supply of mineral potash. Potash, an organic com­ pound, is a major component of most plant fertilizers and is also used in the manufacture of black gunpowder. Germany placed an embargo on potash exports immediately after the start of the Great War, cutting off sales to the United States, which was the world’s largest consumer of potash fertilizers. In Great Britain, the war created an enormous demand for cordite (smokeless gunpowder) and the ace­ tone used to produce it. Responding to this wartime opportunity, enterprising American businessmen built a new industry designed to extract both potash and acetone from California’s giant kelp. Al­ though short-lived, California’s World War I kelp industry was the largest ever created in the United States for the processing of plants from the ocean.1 Historically, potash was a key ingredient used in the production of soap, alum, and saltpeter and had originally been obtained by leaching wood ashes in water to produce lye, which was then boiled Mr. Neushul is a doctoral candidate in the history of science and technology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He thanks Carroll Pursell for his encour­ agement, guidance, and inspiration in the research and writing of the article. He also thanks John E. Talbott, Alfred E. Ebeling, Lawrence Badash, Wilbur R. Jacobs, Susan Neushul, Nancy O’Neil, and the Technology and Culture referees for their helpful comments. 'For a concise historical review of the U.S. chemical industry, see W. Haynes’s American Chemical Industry: A History (New York, 1954). Haynes provides a brief review of the World War I California kelp industry in vol. 3, pp. 155-68. For a world perspective, see L. F. Haber, The Chemical Industry 1900—1930, International Growth and Technological Change (Oxford, 1971), pp. 108-34. For a detailed review of the U.S. explosives industry, see Arthur P. Van Gelder and Hugo Schlatter’s History of the Explosives Industry in America (New York, 1927).®1989 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/89/3003-0005$01.00 561 562 Peter Neushul down in large iron pots (hence the name “potash”). In 18th-century Scotland, seaweed burners replaced dwindling supplies of wood ash with a new ash known as “kelp.” This Scottish term for seaweed ashes has since been used in reference to large brown seaweeds (Macrocystis pyrifera) growing along the coast of California.2 Large-scale harvesting and processing of California “giant kelp” for conversion into potash began in 1914. Most California kelp companies (there were eleven in 1916) extracted potash from kelp by means of a method similar to that used in Scotland. However, the largest plant, built in Chula Vista by the Hercules Powder Co., developed a completely new process for extracting not only potash but also acetone and numerous other chemicals. Between 1915 and 1917, Hercules was the largest foreign manufacturer of cordite for the British, delivering a total of 23,000 tons.3 Hercules was also the most successful manufacturer of acetone during this period, producing over 11 million pounds, half of which was sold to British manufacturers for production of an additional 6,750 tons of cordite. This contribution is particularly significant since the total British production of all smokeless powders between 1914 and 1917 was 140,000 tons.4 In 1917, under the direction ofJ. W. Turrentine, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) built an experimental plant in Summerland, near Santa Barbara, to develop more efficient process­ ing techniques and new products from kelp.3 Although the majority of potash supplies came from natural brines, by 1918 kelp was the second largest source of potash in the United States." Yet, despite the Tor a history of the Scottish kelp industry, see Archibald Clow and Nan L. Clow, “The Natural and Economic History of Kelp.” Annals of Science...