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Dow is the world's largest producer of plastics including polystyrene, polyurethanes, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, and synthetic rubbers. It is also a major producer of the chemicals calcium chloride, and ethylene oxide, as well as various acrylates, surfactants, and cellulose resins. It produces many agricultural chemicals, perhaps being most famous for its pesticideA pesticide is a chemical used to control, to repel, to attract or to kill pests, for example, insects, weeds, birds, mammals, fish, or microbes, that are considered a nuisance. Pesticides are usually, but not always, poisons. Examples of pesticides herbi Lorsban. On the consumer level, its most well-known products include SaranSaran is a trade name for a number of polymers made from vinylidene chloride, along with other monomers. In some jurisdictions, the name Saran is a registered trademark of the Dow Chemical Company, while in others, it has lost trademark status and become wrap, Ziploc bags, and Styrofoam.
The Dow Chemical Company was founded in 1897Events January 1 Brooklyn, New York merges with New York City. January 4 A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosheri, son-in-law of the Oba of Benin. This leads to a Punitive Expedition against Benin. February 2 The Pennsylvania state capitol is dest by Herbert Henry DowHerbert Henry Dow ( 1866 1930) was a U. Canadian-born) chemical industrialist. His most significant achievement was as founder and eponym of Dow Chemical Company in 1897. According to the Dow Chemical Company, Dow was the original inventor of the first eg in order to extract chlorideThe chloride ion is formed when the element chlorine picks up one electron to form the negatively charged ion Cl−. The salts of hydrochloric acid H Cl are also called chlorides. An example is table salt, which is sodium chloride with the formula NaCs and bromides from brineBrine is water saturated or nearly saturated with salt. It is used (now less popular than historically) to preserve vegetables, fish, and meat. Brine lakes, like the Dead Sea, develop as a result of high evaporation rates in a desert climate and lack of a deposits under Midland, Michigan. Its initial products included bromine and bleach. Even in its early history, the company set a tradition of rapidly diversifying its product line. Within twenty years, Dow had become a major producer of agricultural chemicals, elemental chlorine, phenol and other dyestuffs, and magnesium metal.
In the 1930s, Dow began production of plastic resins, which would grow to become one of the corporation's major businesses. Its first plastic products were ethylcellulose in 1935 and polystyrene in 1937.
In 1930, Dow built its first plant to produce magnesium extracted from seawater rather than underground brine. Growth of this business made Dow a strategically important business during World War II, as magnesium became important in fabricating lightweight parts for airplanes. Also during the war, Dow and Corning began their joint venture Dow Corning to produce silicones for military and later civilian use.
In the postwar era, Dow began expanding overseas, founding its first foreign subsidiary in Japan in 1952, with several other nations following rapidly thereafter. Based largely on its growing plastics business, it opened a consumer products division beginning with Saran wrap in 1953. Based on its growing chemicals and plastics businesses, Dow's sales exceeded $1 billion in 1964, $2 billion in 1971, and $10 billion in 1980.
Today, Dow is the world's largest producer of plastics, and with its 1999 acquisition of Union Carbide has become a major player in the petrochemical industry as well.