WAR BONANZA: Dow Chemical Boomed, Threatened in WWI Debacle
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Painting of the Dow Caustic Pot House Stacks by Sir Arthur Knighton-Hammond is cover of new World War I history. (Chemical Heritage Foundation)
Workmen at British-owned North American Chemical Company in Bay City hang Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm in effigy in 1918. (Bay County Library System.)
The unsung story of how Midland and Bay City chemical firms helped the Allies win World War I over the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austro-Hungary and Italy is the subject of a new book.
The Great War, that began 100 years ago in August, allowed The Dow Chemical Company of Midland to finally surpass dominant German chemical firms whose exports were shut off by a British naval blockade.
A British-owned firm in Bay City, the North American Chemical Company, furnished a large share of the base chemicals for explosives for the British Army during the four-year conflict, 1914-1918.
While the Midland firm's stock value skyrocketed to $550 a share and profits soared 1,600 percent during the war, an incredible series of events occurred:
Winnifred Murphy, a fiery red-haired Midland nurse, and Herbert H. Dow, founder of the Dow Chemical Company, were unjustly investigated for "conspiracy against the government," the new book by Bay City historian D. Laurence Rogers reveals.
The mistaken charges were quickly dropped after the war. In 1919 the commanding general of the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service, Maj. Gen. William Sibert, and his staff visited Midland and commended Dow for wartime efforts, according to the book "The G-34 Paradox: Inside the Army's Secret Mustard Gas Project at Dow Chemical in World War I."
The U.S. Justice Department investigation was dropped "for lack of evidence," and the entire matter became a "hush-hush military secret" ever since, according to E.N. "Ned" Brandt, Dow historian and author of several books about the company.
The Detroit News credited Dow with stopping the six company German chemical juggernaut, led by I.G. Farben, in its drive for world dominance. Details of how Mr. Dow broke German price-cutting and dumping with a secret buying and repackaging strategy prior to the war also are explained in the book.
Meanwhile, new research shows that a branch of a British firm, the United Alkali Company of Liverpool, located in Bay City, was producing and shipping major supplies for explosives for the British Army battling the Germans for three years before U.S. entry in the war in 1917.
Operating as North American Chemical Company, the British firm had 250 acres on the Saginaw River south of 41st Street. Some of the firm's 27 brine wells were on the mysterious, historic 1600s Indian battleground, Skull Island.
A Dow competitor, NACC operated here 1898-1928, producing chlorates for explosives and Diamond matches and also furnishing electric power to the City of Bay City. City power sales amassed a $500,000 surplus in 10 years. Consumers Power Company wiped out competitition by purchasing and demolishing the power generating plant in 1928, leaving ruins known by generations of South End residents as "The Alkali."
A "war" with the British over control of the bleach market had pushed Dow near bankruptcy in the early 1900s, only averted by borrowing huge sums from banks.
Details of the wartime incidents in Midland, shrouded in mystery since 1918, have been revealed in archived documents held by the Chemical Heritage Foundation, a Philadelphia archive of the chemical industry.
The papers of Dr. Albert W. Smith, Dow board member and scientist for the U.S. Bureau of Mines, the main progenitor of mustard gas for America, held by the Case Western Reserve University Archives, Cleveland, also were an important source for the book.
Dow was actually a hero in the war against Germany because his firm was the first and most successful producer of mustard gas desperately needed to combat the enemy in France, the author, D. Laurence Rogers, contends.
And, the firm dedicated 90 percent of its production to chemicals used in military explosives, synthetic rubber to replace scarce Far East supplies, as well as a new product, magnesium, used for battlefield star shells and flares.
The deaths of two soldiers working in Midland on the mustard gas project precipitated a series of events that led to a mistaken justice department investigation of Mr. Dow and a nurse Murphy.
The Army cancelled Dow's mustard gas project as a result of Nurse Murphy's retaliation against an Army physician she felt had mistreated the soldiers, contributing to their demise.
The cancellation came at the height of demand for mustard gas, when Army commander Gen. John J. Pershing, was calling for 1,000 tons a day of the toxic chemical for use in battle.
An investigation by Joseph Bayliss, later an F.B.I. official in charge of four field offices, revealed that Ms. Murphy had surreptiously placed drops of mustard oil, the basis for mustard gas, in the shoe of the physician, a Dr. Lester L. Roos, Army captain.
Dr. Roos traveled to Washington by train, showed his injuries, and convinced Gen. Sibert to abruptly end Dow's contract for production of mustard gas.
The book recounts how the depositions taken by Bayliss of all major participants in the events, detail the truth of the incredible series of events that have been a virtual military secret for all these years.
The author calls for a universal effort by citizens in support of an international campaign against use of chemical weapons.
Dr. Roger F. Pajak, of Fairfax, Virginia, a native Bay Cityan and former strategic advisor to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and several government agencies, has written a foreword to the book.
The book, published by Historical Press L.L.C., of Bay City, is available on amazon.com and from the author at 989-686-5544 or dlaurencerogers@gmail.com.
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"The BUZZ" - Read Feedback From Readers! |
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dmazur Says:
On February 17, 2014
at 02:25 PM
I hope the book is more accurate than this sneak peek. Italy was on the Allied side. Turkey was allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary.
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dlaurencerogers Says:
On February 26, 2014
at 10:37 AM
A look closer than a "sneak peek" would reveal to the reader that he book contains this language that is accurate: "Believing the Alliance to be strictly defensive, Italy did not enter the war until later when it joined the Entente. (Allies) And the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) came in on the side of the Germans."
Sincerely, the author. |
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dennis_skupinski Says:
On September 05, 2014
at 12:22 PM
This is a very interesting book. This is must reading for those who are interested in Michigan's WW1 Centennial.
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MyBayCity Staff |
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