E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Explosives Dept.

The antecedents of the Explosives Department date back to 1903, when the Black Powder and High Explosives Departments were created following the DuPont Company's reorganization as a modern corporation. In 1917, the Explosives Manufacturing Department was created by the merger of these departments. It was renamed the Explosives Department in 1921.

In the years leading up to the Second World War, the United States Government initiated a massive effort to ensure that adequate supplies of essential materials would be readily available should our armed forces become actively engaged in a military conflict. At the request of the Army Ordnance Department, the DuPont Company participated in these procurement programs by undertaking the design, construction, and operation of plants for the manufacture of military explosives and other chemical products essential to the successful prosecution of the war. The most important of these military explosives was smokeless powder, used as a propellant in the firing of both large and small caliber ammunition. Another critical explosive was trinitrotoluene, commonly known as TNT, used primarily as a bursting charge and blasting agent.

As one of the principal suppliers of smokeless powder to Allied forces in World War I and holder of numerous patents for vital manufacturing processes, DuPont was the logical choice to assist the Government in meeting its procurement goals. However, in the wake of widespread criticism of the munitions industry for its conduct during World War I, most notably the scathing indictment delivered by the Nye Commission Report, DuPont was initially reluctant to make a similar commitment.

By the mid-1930s, significant advances had been achieved in the manufacture of military explosives. However, these improvements had merely been adapted to small-scale production at existing plants, such as DuPont's smokeless powder plant at Carney's Point, New Jersey and its TNT plant at Barksdale, Wisconsin. In December 1936, Ordnance Department officials met with representatives from leading explosives manufacturers and agreed to draw up plans for the construction of facilities equipped with standard operating units capable of producing 100,000 pounds of smokeless powder per day.

In the weeks following the Nazi invasion of Poland in September 1939, DuPont's Executive Committee authorized the Explosives Department to enter into negotiations with the War Department for the construction of ordnance facilities at sites selected by the government. In all, eight large-scale plants were designed and constructed by DuPont's Engineering Department over the next four years. These plants were responsible for 65% of smokeless powder production and 30% of TNT production under the Army Ordnance Department's procurement program.