American Cyanamid Company. Calco Chemical Division

New Jersey’s Calco Chemical Company was founded in 1915 at a site close to the town of Bound Brook, almost adjacent to the Raritan River, to manufacture coal-tar intermediates required to make synthetic dyestuffs.

After 1918, Calco also successfully embarked on the manufacture of synthetic dyestuffs by processes that were far more complex than hitherto used in American chemical industry. With the help of technical experts such as Victor L. King, Calco introduced process improvements based on its own innovations. Inventive activity was enhanced from 1927 with the creation of a research department, one of the earliest in the U.S. chemical industry.

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