Philadelphia Quartz Company
Name Entries
corporateBody
Philadelphia Quartz Company
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Name Components
Name :
Philadelphia Quartz Company
PQ Corp
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Name Components
Name :
PQ Corp
INEAS Silicas
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Name Components
Name :
INEAS Silicas
PQ Corporation
Computed Name Heading
Name Components
Name :
PQ Corporation
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Exist Dates
Biographical History
The Elkinton Company began as a Philadelphia candle and soap shop founded by Joseph Elkinton in 1831. In the 1840s the company began to diversify its products to include a line of "fancy and specialty soaps." By mid-decade Joseph's son, Thomas, began to develop a synthetic detergent. After more than a decade of experimentation with soluble silicates, the firm built a furnace for synthesizing detergents with a silicate base. During the Civil War, when the supplies of rosin from the South were cut off, leaving Northern soap makers without an essential raw material, the Elkinton firm found a large market for its synthetic soap.
After the Civil War, the Elkinton firm grew rapidly. They acquired a new plant in Anderson, Indiana and began manufacturing lye, fertilizers, oils, greases, adhesives, fiber, and wall board. In 1875, the company hired its first sales agent. In 1888 the name was changed to the Philadelphia Quartz Company.
World War I created an array of opportunities and opened up new markets for soluble silicates. During the war, under the direction of Dr. James Vail, the company's Chemical Department discovered that silica gels could be used as a base to manufacture catalysts for cracking crude oil molecules to make high-octane gasoline. Vail also developed a potassium silicate that was soon adopted for use in cathode ray tubes. This innovation had important implications for television and radar. The company name was changed to PQ Corporation in 1978.
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External Related CPF
https://viaf.org/viaf/124344339
https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n81062685
https://id.loc.gov/authorities/n81062685
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Internal CPF Relations
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Languages Used
Subjects
Advertising
Catalytic cracking
Cathode ray tubes
Chemical engineering laboratories
Chemical industry
Chemistry
Commercial agents
Communications in personnel management
Conscientious objectors
Corrosion and anti-corrosives
Corrosion and anti-corrosives
Corrosion control industry
Detergents
Employee fringe benefit
Family corporations
Fertilizer
Society of Friends
Gasoline
Industrial accidents
Research, Industrial
Industrial safety
Pacifism
Patents
Paternalism
Quakers
Quaker scientists
Radar
Silicate industry
Silicate industry
Silicate of soda
Silicates
Soap
Sodium silicate
Technological innovations
Technology transfer
Television picture tubes
Temperance
Trademarks
Wages
World War, 1914-1918
Water treatment plants
Nationalities
Activities
Occupations
Legal Statuses
Places
United States
as recorded (not vetted)
AssociatedPlace
Germany
as recorded (not vetted)
AssociatedPlace
Philadelphia (Pa.)
as recorded (not vetted)
AssociatedPlace
Convention Declarations
<conventionDeclaration><citation>VIAF</citation></conventionDeclaration>