Anthony S. Travis

This book explores the rise of the modern U.S. organic chemicals industry through the Bround Book, New Jersey, facility of the American Cyanamid Company. The site was chosen in 1915 by the Calco Chemical Company for the manufacture of coal-tar intermediates and synthetic dyestuffs previously imported from Europe. After Calco was acquired by American Cyanamid in 1929, the facility diversified into sulfa drugs based on dye intermediates, and novel polymers for the first colored molded plastic goods and ubiquitous melamine laminates. Bound Brook was the international leader in instrumental analysis and color matching of dyes, and contributed to the first phase of the instrumental revolution. It introduced continuous, automated process equipment, with the aim of replacing certain batch processes, though the outcomes were not always as intended. The widespread decline in chemical invention and innovation after 1960 had a considerable impact on the affairs of what had become the Organic Chemicals Division of American Cyanamid. Environmental issues concerning the adjacent Raritan River, a source of water and a sink for waste, had also come to the fore. Pressures from state agencies stimulated innovations in the treatment of liquid waste, including in 1957 the largest biological waste-treatment system in New Jersey, and in 1977 and advanced continuous activated-carbon wastewater treatment plant. The inclusion of extensive transcripts from interviews and documents connected with the Bound Brook facility provides historians of science, technology and the environment with valuable resource material. -- P. 4 of cover.

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