Finding Aids

The Artillery Fuse Company of Wilmington, Delaware, was a special venture formed to supply ordnances during World War I and was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Manufacturers Contracting Company. The records consist of scattered business records for the Manufacturers Contracting Company, the Artillery Fuse Company, and the later General Manufacturing Company.

Incorporated in 1912, Atlas Powder Company functioned as an independent explosives and chemicals company until 1971, when it was purchased by Imperial Chemical Industries Limited (U.K.) and became its American affiliate under the name ICI Americas, Inc. The collection consists of minutes, reports, and correspondence from Atlas in addition to both predecessor and subsidiary companies.

Bill Mackey (1906-1996) was a chemical engineer and the plant manager of the Technical Division of the Explosives Department of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. His papers consist of a mix of personal and DuPont Company materials documenting his career as an explosives expert.

Delaware Steel and Ordnance Company, Inc. was a salvage corporation headquartered in New York, although its plant operations were in Delaware. The firm was chartered in 1915 when it took over the Diamond State Steel Company of Delaware. This item is a work log or diary of a post-World War I contractual operation engaged to remove and dispose of deteriorated ammunition from 1927 through 1928 at the Curtis Bay Ordnance Depot and the Raritan Arsenal. The log details the project from the initial contract, rules and regulations, weather summary, accidents, visitors, data, and other statistics of daily work performed by the Delaware Steel and Ordnance Company. Kenneth E. Cross (1898-1979), the compiler of the log, was hired to be an assistant to the superintendent at Curtis Bay Ordnance Depot.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. It was organized in Paris in 1801 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont and originally produced gunpowder. The collection consists of a binder containing miscellaneous memoranda and tables describing DuPont's manufacture of ordnance between 1914 and 1919.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly known as the DuPont Company. It was established in 1802 and began by manufacturing gunpowder, later moving into chemical compounds. The company's Engineering Department was initially organized in 1903 as a division of the High Explosives Department, with the purpose of designing and constructing high explosives plants, powder machinery, and extensions to existing plants. This collection of DuPont Engineering records is fragmentary in nature. The surviving records are divided into four series that document a wide range of functions and represent several different time periods in the department’s evolution. The series are: Engineering Department history file; Engineering Research Laboratory; Construction Division; and Design Division, Corfam Poromeric Technology.

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 the country's armed forces become actively engaged in 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 records of the Explosives Department consist of special reports to the Executive Committee, the files of general manager Edward B. Yancey, and the files of powder superintendent Charles E. Seymour.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Repauno Works manufactured high explosive dynamite. The company began as the Repauno Chemical Company on June 7, 1880 founded by Lammot du Pont (1831-1884). Lammot du Pont was a chemist working for the family business, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company which originally produced gunpowder. This collection consists of material for the 100th anniversary of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Repauno Works.

George Washington Rains (1817-1898) was a United States Army and Confederate Army officer and proprietor in the Washington Iron Works. This war-date memorandum by Rains gives a full look at the successful Confederate crash program to develop reliable sources of munitions under wartime conditions and gives clues to the skills of the person who managed it.

The Henry family were armsmakers who operated a family gun manufactory in eastern Pennsylvania for five generations. The records of the Henry family document the line leading from the first William to Granville, with some records of William, III. The main body of records deals with the operation of the Boulton Gun Works, its predecessor operation at Nazareth and the associated gun shop and store in Philadelphia.

Hudson Maxim (1853-1927) was an inventor and chemist best known for his work in the development of smokeless gunpowder and military explosives. The papers consist primarily of Maxim's published and manuscript writings from the period between 1907 and 1926. The writings range in topics: Napoleon, the future of naval and aerial warfare, and social Darwinism and anti-immigration.

The Indiana Ordnance Works was built by the DuPont Company for the U.S. Government beginning in 1940. It manufactured military explosives, propellants, and smokeless powder. This collection consists of photographs of the Ballistics Lab of the Indiana Ordnance Works.

The Indiana Ordnance Works was built by the DuPont Company for the U.S. Government beginning in 1940. It manufactured military explosives, propellants, and smokeless powder. The panoramic photographs show overviews of the Indiana Ordnance Works facilities, Charlestown, Indiana.

The Midvale Steel Company manufactured steel parts and was known for casting, forging, and machining high-quality steels, including alloy steels, and precision steel products for a wide array of industries. Their primary business came from work related to railroad and ordnance manufacturing. This small collection consists of five reels of film that document operations at the Midvale Steel Plant in the Nicetown section of Philadelphia. While the reels are not dated, they are believed to be from 1919. The films document the various stages of production at the plant with a focus on the precision steel making processes for which Midvale was known.

The Midvale Steel Company manufactured steel parts for the railroad industry and the armaments industry. The company was known for casting, forging, and machining high-quality steels, including alloy steels. This album contains photographs showing exteriors and interiors of Midvale Steel facilities in the Nicetown area of Germantown.

Pierre Samuel "P.S." du Pont (1870-1954) was president of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. (more commonly known as the DuPont Company or simply DuPont) from 1915 to 1919 and chairman of the board from 1919 to 1940. P.S. du Pont was the great grandson of Eleuthere Irenee du Pont (1771-1834), founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. He was also an avid collector of documents on the early history of the du Pont family and the DuPont Company. This collection contains elements which were selected from both company and family papers. The material was lodged in du Pont's Wilmington office for a number of years prior to his death in 1954.

The collection consists of a handwritten volume, in Italian, on the construction, testing, and use of ordnance during war in Naples, Italy.

Wallis Gartside Hines (1919-2014) was a chemical engineer employed at the Kankakee Ordnance Works from 1942 to 1943, a war plant of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company located south of Joliet, Illinois. His notes describe the steps to be followed in the manufacture and refining of sodium and lead azide and for the laboratory analysis necessary for quality control.