Jackson Laboratory (E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company).

The Jackson Laboratory was established by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company at its Deepwater, N.J., dye works in 1917. It was named for Oscar R. Jackson, a chemical engineer who had been superintendent of the Repauno dynamite works in the late 19th century. Du Pont had begun using its war profits to diversify away from its traditional base in gunpowder and nitrocellulose. German imports had dominated the American markets for dyestuffs and related organic chemicals prior to hostilities in 1914. The British blockade thus created a vacuum into which Du Pont moved, establishing both the dye works and its associated laboratory.

Entry into the dyestuffs market played a crucial role in transforming Du Pont from a traditional explosives manufacturer into a modern diversified chemical company. The dyestuffs experience provided an example of how research and development could be coordinated with manufacturing operations to produce a comprehensive business based on the applications of different branches of organic chemistry. The scientific and technical base established in the course of the early dyestuffs research at the Jackson Laboratory proved valuable in many of the company's later commercial ventures.

Beginnng in the 1920s, the Jackson Laboratory produced tetraethyl lead, neoprene, man-made elastomers, the first fluorocarbons used in refrigerants, Teflon, and vinyl fluoride.

In 1960 the Organic Chemicals Department's process-development activities were merged with the research program at the Jackson Laboratory and the Experimental Station to create a Research and Development Division. With the formation of the Chemicals, Dyes & Pigments Department in January 1978, Jackson absorbed the Chambers Works Manufacturing Department and the Colored Pigments Research Department.