Pennwalt Corporation

Pennwalt Corporation was incorporated in Pennsylvania on September 1, 1850, as the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Company. It was renamed the Pennsalt Chemicals Corporation on April 27, 1957. Upon absorbing Wallace & Tiernan, Inc., a manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, on March 31, 1969, it was renamed the Pennwalt Corporation. In 1989, the properties of Pennwalt were acquired by the Société Nationale Elf Aquitane, a French petrochemical firm, and merged into Elf Atochem, N.A.

The company was based in Philadelphia. The original manufacturing plant was located at Natrona in western Pennsylvania. The company originally manufactured sodium, chlorine and fluorine compounds for home and industrial use, including lye, sal soda, sodium bicarbonate, and alum. In 1864, the company acquired the American rights to cryolite, a richer source of sodium that had been discovered in Greenland. In 1904, the company began the manufacture of chlorine by electrolysis. Between 1960 and 1975, the company expanded by conglomerate mergers, diversifying into plastics, coatings, machinery, dental supplies, and pharmaceuticals.

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