The Atlantic Dynamite Company was one of the largest manufacturers of dynamite in the United States between 1882 and 1904. The company was organized in California on November 2, 1870, and was named the Atlantic Giant Powder Company. Formal incorporation papers were filed on June 12, 1876. It was designed to be the eastern affiliate of the Giant Powder Company of San Francisco, a major manufacturer of dynamite, and in 1871 constructed a plant at McCainsville (Kenvil), New Jersey, southwest of Dover and near a major iron-mining area. About ten Chinese immigrant workers had to be sent from San Francisco to get the plant up and running, the last staying until 1879. On April 15, 1874, the Giant Powder Company transferred to the Atlantic Giant Powder Company all the rights to the Nobel dynamite patents for the territory roughly lying east of the Rocky Mountains.

Rival companies viewed the subsidiary at Kenvil as a growing concern for business in the area and began purchasing stock. By 1882, a major competitor, the Laflin & Rand Powder Company (L&R), and two dynamite industry executives, cousins, Lammot du Pont (1831-1884) and William du Pont (1855-1928), had acquired a one-third interest in the Atlantic Giant Powder Company at Kenvil. It was enough ownership control to be able to reorganize and rename the company, the Atlantic Dynamite Company.

The E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (DuPont Company) was a black powder and explosives manufacturing company; and a major competitor of the Laflin & Rand Powder Company at the time. Lammot du Pont and William du Pont were both affiliated with the DuPont Company, among other leading gunpowder and explosives companies, such as the Repauno Chemical Company. A separate New Jersey holding company, the Atlantic Dynamite Company of New Jersey, was incorporated on June 29, 1895. Also, in 1895, the Eastern Dynamite Company was formed to hold the stocks of the Repauno Chemical Company and other dynamite producers. A New York corporation for Atlantic Dynamite was organized in December 1901 and existed for two years as a temporary sales company. The DuPont Company purchased the Laflin & Rand Powder Company in 1902. The Kenvil Works passed into the hands of the Eastern Dynamite Company in June 1904 and thus was under the complete control of the du Pont family and DuPont Company interests. The DuPont Company had been found to be in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and was court-ordered to break up ownership of its explosives manufacturing businesses from 1911 to 1912; the ownership of the Kenvil Plant passed to the newly formed Hercules Powder Company.