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.

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