Local Industry Owes Much to Weizmann

By Frances E. Hughes

Had it not been for Chaim Weizmann, first President of the State of Israel and an internationally famous scientist and political leader, the Commercial Solvents Corporation would not have been in business nor have gained international status as a large chemi-cal company as it did. The Commercial Solvents started at the end of World War I and continued as an independent company until 1975 when there was a merger of the company with the International Minerals and Chemical Corporation. Thus the Commercial Solvents became a wholly-owned subsidiary of IMC. The story of Weizmann is an interesting one as he was a very intelligent and interesting man. He was born on Nov. 17,1874, in the tiny town of Motele in the Propet marshes of Poland. The story about Weizmann and the Commercial Solvents Corporation began with the outbreak of World War I in 1914 when the British were using cordite as a propellant in both cartridges and shells. Cordite was then made by galatanizing nitroglycerin and guncotton in acetone. The fragrant mint-smelling acetone was obtained almost entirely from the distillation of wood, which had to be dried six months before being processed. A desperate shortage developed with the outbreak of the war, and cordite made with defective acetone was blamed for the defeat of a British naval squadron off Chile. Shells plopped harmlessly into the water far short of the enemy, and two cruisers were sunk with all hands. The admiralty called for acetone in such quantities that the wood in all the forests would have been insufficient. Acetone in those days was obtained by heating wood in closed ovens, and it was supplied largely by Austria and the United States. With the Austrian supply shut off, the amount of acetone available to the British was inadequate to meet the rapidly increasing requirements for cordite. Later on, as the air warfare grew in inten-sity, a further need for large amounts of acetone developed in the making of the so-called dope used to coat the wings of airplanes. In the meantime, Chaim Weizmann had already made a number of important contributions in the field of chemistry. One day in 1916, he was summoned to the British Admiralty, where he saw Dir. Frederick L. Nathan, head of the powder department. He was told of the serious shortage of acetone, the solvent making cordite, without which it would be necessary to make far-reaching changes in naval guns. Weizmann was then taken to the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, who told him they needed thirty thousand tons of acetone and asked him to make it. The chemist had succeeded in making only a few hundred cubic centimeters of acetone at a time by the fermentation process, did his work in a laboratory and did not think he could even determine what would be required. Given carte blanche by Churchill, he began a task that was to take all his strength for two years. It meant pioneering in a field in which he had had no experience. The first all-scale experiment of the war. Some of the acetone was manufactured in France, some in India, from rice. The first American plant for this method of producing acetone was built in Terre Haute. After the war, Weizmann's patents were taken over by the Commercial Solvents. The government gave Weizmann a token reward, amounting to about 10 shillings for every ton of acetone produced, a total of 10 thousand pounds.

When Weizmann first made his discovery, it was the first time bacteria had been deliberately sought to perform a specific industrial labor. His intention was to publish freely the results of his researches as a contribution to science. He was more interested in opportunity for congenial work than in making money. But at the suggestion of the head of the chemical department of Nobel's Explosives Company, he went through the formality of making application for a patent, and the English patent 4845 was issued to him in March 1915. In 1919, the United States Government also granted Weizmann a patent. These brought income and fame to him. Commercial Solvents Corporation made an arrangement with Weizmann to pay him on a royalty basis for exclusive use of his patent, which expired in 1936. He began to receive payments incredible to one accustomed to the modest salary of a university instructor or laboratory worker. Without seeking fame, Weizmann became an international figure. When the British Government wanted to give him an award of honor for his great contribution, he asked nothing for himself but said he had long been interested in a plan to have Palestine made a national home for the Jewish people. He had been active in this movement since 1901. In consequence of Weizmann's suggestion, the British Foreign Secretary issued the famous Balfour Declaration which became the charter of the Zionist movement, and at the London conference in 1920, Weizmann became the head of the whole Zionist organization. Today, Jews throughout the world probably consider him, along with Einstein, one of the outstanding men of his race now living. Terre Haute and Commercial Solvents owe much to Weizmann, as the local plant has been an outstanding one in the community and for Commercial Solvents, the patents have served their purpose. Without them, the corporation would hardly have been able to develop its markets so rapidly and broadly, nor could it have carried on research so extensively in industrial bacteriology and chemistry. In the years following Weizmann's contribution, operations of Commercial Solvents have been so diversified that products manufactured by the Weizmann process provided only a relatively small part of the company's revenue. After 1922, the Weizmann patent was carried on the books at a valuation of only one dollar. Commercial Solvents businesses in-eluded specialty and commodity chemicals for industry, agricultural chemicals, animal health and nutrition products, industrial explosives and carbon blacks.

Its products for human health and animal health and nutrition were developed largely through the company's expertise in fermentation technology that began in the early days of the corporation's history. It continued to reflect, both in its allegiance to Terre Haute and its emphasis on fermentation chemistry, its origins in the discoveries of Chaim Weizmann.

Commercial Solvents: child of World War I Second of a Series By Frances E. Hughes

Commercial Solvents Corporation was born of intensive World War I research in explosives and earned distinction as the pioneer producer of acetone and butanol by fermentation processes.

It all started with Chaim Weizmann who discovered the method of making acetone by the fermentation process.

When Weizmann found that cultures of grain-feeding, spindle shaped bacterium named Clostridium acetobutylicum Weizmann produced the required acetone at an unprecedented rate, the Bri-tish Government adopted the process and started production at plants in England, Canada and India.

After the United States entered the war, the United States Air Service and the British War Mission purchased the Commercial and Majestic whiskey distilleries on the Wabash River at Terre Haute and adapted them for acetone production by the Weismann process.

To manage the enterprise, the Joint War Board formed the Commercial Solvents Corporation of New York. Between May of 1918 and cessation of operations on Armistice Day, 1,500,000 gallons of acetone were produced along with twice this’ amount of butyl alcohol for which there was then no demand.

Two members of the British War Mission interested a group of Americans in the commercial possibilities of the Weizmann pro-cess. With the advantages in mind of cheap and readily available raw materials, this group purchased the Terre Haute facilities from the government and acquired exclusive rights under the Weizmann patents for peacetime development of the war-born industry.

Late in 1919, the new company of Commercial Solvents Cor-poration of Maryland was incorporated. Production was resumed in 1920.

A series of events shifted interest from acetone to the hitherto useless butyl alcohol which had been stored in a huge tank. With the advent of prohibition, limited fusel oil supplies (this was a by-product of the manufacture of whiskey) shrank to practically nothing. Then, it was found that butyl acetate and butyl alcohol could be substituted for amyl acetate in lacquers and even had definite advantages over the previously used product.

Commercial Solvents then registered the name Butanol, which became the accepted name for butyl alcohol. The contents of the big butanol storage tank quickly found its way into the new, fast-drying lacquer which permitted automobiles to be finished better than ever before in assembly-line operations that required only minutes instead of days. In 1921, the company's orders for butanol greatly exceeded production.

Whiskey distilling resumes

Some ethyl alcohol had always been made as a by-product of the Weizmann process and, with the repeal of prohibition, Com-

Farmers delivering grain· 1923.

Office building with distilling tower in background, 1940.

mercial Solvents expanded in this direction. Barrel storage warehouses in Terre Haute, sold after World War I, were repurchased and distillation of bourbon and rye whiskies and neutral spirits for the blending of whiskey was started for bulk sale to bottlers and rectifiers.

In 1927, the company built a plant at Peoria, III., which made synthetic methanol, and became the first United States company to market this product.

Management of Thermatomic Carbon Company, which made fine grades of carbon black, was assumed by CSC in 1931. In 1938, the company acquired majority interest in the carbon company at Sterlington, La.

The Rossville Commercial Alcohol Corporation and its sub-sidiary, American Solvents and Chemical Corporations of Califor-nia, were purchased by Commercial Solvents in 1933 as the com-pany continued to expand. By this purchase, the company acquired an important antifree'ie and industrial alcohol business plus additional producing faCilities at Harvey and Westwego, La., and Agnew, Calif. :

In 1935, Commercial Solvents and Corn Products Refining Company formed Commercial Molasses Corporation in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the United States.

During the 1930s, high-pressure synthesis activities of Com- " mercial Solvents were expanded by development of the nitroparaffin process which utilizes natural gas. In 1940, an oversized pilot plant at Peoria went into operation.

Trucks unloading corn at old grain elevator - 1946.

Product expansion parked postwar years

Anti-freeze introduced : In 1937, the company's line of anti-freezes was broadened to include Norway, a methanol anti-freeze. In 1941, a permanent-type glycol anti-freeze was added under the trade name Peak. Additional cooling system products were produced to round out the line. A large new plant at Terre Haute was completed in 1946 to package these specialty products of the company. The field of vitamin production was entered by the company in 1938. At Peoria, production of riboflavin supplements for use by manufacturers in poultry and livestock feeds was started. A new process was developed and installed at Terre Haute for the production of large quantities of pure crystalline riboflavin by deep-vat fermentation. Entering the pharmaceutical field in 1943, the company constructed a large penicillin plant at Terre Haute. Penicillin on a large scale utilizing the deep fermentation process was first produced by Commercial Solvents. In 1946, the company became the first to commercially produce crystalline penicillin of high potency, heat stable and not requiring refrigeration.

Aids war effort : During World War II, the company had built and operated the The Terre Haute plant had another addition in 1946 when a benzene hexachloride plant was built here. The insecticidal material made here was sold to manufacturers of insecticides, thus the company was entering another field of production. , Also in 1946, the company purchased the Pennsylvania Alcohol and Chemical Company at Carlstadt, N.J., which produced alcohols, solvents, clear-base nitrocellulose solutions and pharmaceuticals. Addition of the Carlstadt property increased to 10 the plants owned and operated by Commercial Solvents. During that year of 1946, sales of the Commercial Solvents Corporation totaled $41,875,000. T. P. Walker was Chairman of the Board and Henry E. Perry, who lived in Terre Haute for some years, was President. The Terre Haute plant was producing benzene hexachloride, nitroparaffin derivatives, penicillin, riboflavin, automotive specialties and potable alcohol. Maynard C. Wheeler was vice president of production, maintaining his office in Terre Haute.

Capacity production continued for acetone, butanol and ethanol at Peoria, III.; Terre Haute, Harvey, La., and Agnew, Calif. Plants at Carlstadt, N.J., and Newark, N.J. were distributing solvents and denaturing ethyl alcohol. The Sterlington, La., plant was producing ammonia and methanol.

Third and last in series on Commercial Solvents

By Frances E. Hughes

Terre Haute's plant of Commercial Solvents Corporation got another plant in 1947 when a packaging plant for anti-freeze and other consumer products was built here.

The company also added another plant at Sterlington, La., that year when a plant for production of methanol was completed there. Bacitracin, a new antibiotic, was introduced then by the company.

Also in 1947, Commercial Solvents purchased preferred and common stock in the amount of 65.3 percent of Thermatonic Carbon Company, By then, the company had five independent businesses: industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, agriculture (animal feeds, fertilizer and insecticide), automotive chemical specialties and potable spirits.

In 1948, a new animal feed supplement was added to the agriculture line -- an essential amino acid, choline chloride, produced by chemical synthesis.

Dedication of a new research center, including a pharmacological laboratory and a microbiological pilot plant, in Terre Haute took place in 1949. A large commercial unit to produce benzene hexachloride for commercial expansion also was constructed at Terre Haute that year. Severe infestation of the southern cotton crop had demonstrated the need for benzene hexachloride. Clyde Ellis was then local plant manager.

In 1950, a new antibiotic plant was constructed here to produce various products made by bacteriological processes and units were built in Peoria to make vitamin and antibiotic aninial feed supplements. That year, J. Albert Woods, previously President of the Wilson and Toomer Fertilizer Company of Jacksonville, Fla., became the new President of Commercial Solvents.

Work started in 1950 on a new blood volume expander to be called Expandex. Production of this started in the Summer of 1952. Silan, a new synthetic insecticide to control the Mexican bean beetle also was placed on the market by the company in 1950.

From the Sterlington, La., plant a new hi-density ammonium nitrate was introduced by the company in 1951. By that year, there were 2,555 employees of Commercial Solvents, with 880 of them in Terre Haute.

Sales in 1953 amounted to $51,310,000. There was expansion for Terre Haute to include benzene hexachloride, Dilan and antifreeze canning, and large expansions in ammonia and methanol in the Sterlington plant.

The Terre Haute plant began production of a new antibiotic called Cycloserine for treatment of tuberculosis and urinary tract infections in 1955, and the company put a new nitroparaffin plant in Sterlington. Net sales that year were $56,623,700 but employment in the company dropped to 1993, with 450 of those in Terre Haute.

That year, the company announced a joint venture to construct a nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer plant at Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. The company was known as Northwest Nitro-Chemicals, Ltd. Commercial Solvents owned 42.7 per cent and operated the company, which began production during 1956.

Thermatonic Carbon Company merged into the corporation in 1957, with Commercial Solvents then owning 100 per cent of the company, which was operated as a division. There were plant expansions that year of a new methlyamines plant at Terre Haute; new methanol unit and new ammonium nitrate unit at Sterlington.

Further expansion was noted in 1958, when Commercial Solvents acquired Louisiana Gas Production Company, comprised of gas wells, gathering and transmission lines; and purchased one third interest in Petroquimica De Mexico, S.A., to market aqua ammonia in northern Mexico. "

Maynard C. Wheeler of Terre Haute was named president in

An aerial phot of north section of plant with view of Fairbanks Park and pool (upper right) taken sometime in 1940s. (Photo by Hartin.)

1959, and that year sales and earnings rose sharply with sales at $70,381,000.

The next year, Commercial Solvents acquired 80 per cent ownership of Hoffman-Lampis and FIART, S.PA, of Rome, Italy. A new kind of nitrogen solution for makers of mixed fertilizers, DriSol, was introduced in March of that year by the company.

Four feed vitamin companies were acquired by the company in 1961. They were Stabilized Vitamins, Inc., Vitarin Chemical Manufacturing Company and Astrol Products, Inc., all of Garfield, N.J., and Iowa Nutrition Company of Clinton, Iowa.

Both expansion and sales soared during the next year, when the company reported 2,301 employees and annual sales of $80,681,000. Commercial Solvents increased its holdings in Northwest Nitro-Chemicals, Ltd., to 51 percent from 42.7 percent; acquired major interest in an Italian drug firm, Instituto Chemioteropico Italiana, S.P.A., of Milan, Italy, and acquired McWhorter Chemicals, Inc., of Chicago, a developer and supplier of resin products for paints and protective coatings.

Since synthetic production of solvents made fermentation less competitive, the Peoria, III., plant of the company was closed in 1963. That year, the Terre Haute plant started production of monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer. The company also acquired Industrial Explosive Division of Olin Mathieson, with plants at Marion, III., Tacoma, Wash., and Mount Braddock, Pa., which it operated as the United States Powder Company.

A second gas company, known as Navarro Gas Production Company, was purchased by Commercial Solvents in 1965, and the Terre Haute plant announced building of an advanced design chemical derivations plant that year. Sales in 1965 were $90,764,000.

That year, Commercial Solvents announced discovery and initial development of a new class of estrogenic chemicals known as the RALs. More than 300 RAL patent applications were filed in the United States.

In 1966, Maynard C. Wheeler became chairman of the board and his brother, Robert C. Wheeler, became president of the company. The company announced plans for construction of an ammonia plant capable of producing one thousand tons per day at Sterlington, La., and continued to broaden its international animal nutrition operations by serving its Mexican customers through Comsolmex, S. A., a wholly owned subsidiary in Mexico City.

The ammonia plant went into production in 1967. In September of that year, the company purchased for cash the Trojan Powder Company with operations located in Seiple, Pa.; Wolf Lake, III., and Springville, Utah. Approximately 800 employees were added with this purchase.

Ralgro, one of the resocylic acid lactones, was introduced in 1969 as an implant to increase the rate of growth and feed efficiency in cattle. That year, subsidiaries also were established -- Chemsyna Gmb.H in Munich, Germany, and Industrial Kern Espanola, SA, in Madrid, Spain.

In 1970, the company sold 45 percent of Northwest NitroChemical Ltd., to Canadian interests. During 1972, the company had its best year in international business in terms of sales volume, profit-ability and market penetration. Sales in Western Europe alone accounted for approximately 15 percent of the company's sales. Subsidiaries and affiliated companies involved were in Italy, Germany and Spain.

In 1973, the biggest volume of sales was in Ralgro, pharmaceutical drugs, thermal carbon black, ammonia, ammonium nitrate, specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals and animal health products. Manufacturing operations expanded in Europe, Latin America and the Far East, as well as in the United States and Canada. That year, William S. Leonhardt was elected president of the company.

Commercial Solvents Corporation and International Minerals and Chemical Corporation merged in March of 1975, making Commercial Solvents a wholly owned subsidiary of IMC.

The corporate research is done in Terre Haute with this plant known as the Corporation Research Center. Here, 125 technical and supportive personnel conduct basic research in chemical synthesis and fermentation biochemistry.

Lee Webb is plant manager and there are now approximately 500 employees at the local plant.

Products produced include Ralgro, an implant for cattle;

Aerial Photo of the Commercial Solvents Complex taken in the early 1940s. (Photo by Miner-Billings, Indpls.)

more; Alkaterges, defoamers; Choline Bicarbonate, synthetic waxes and bactericides.

Commercial Solvents has long been a part of this community and has contributed much over the years to the progress of the city. Now that it has merged with International Minerals and Chemicals Corporation, it is anticipated that the same close relationship will continue to exist between the company and community.