A Shift to Organic Chemistry

After World War I, H.H. Dow made it a priority to pursue research in the new area of organic chemistry. This was an era of incredible innovation for Dow, and much of the research done during the 1920s and 1930s laid the base of knowledge for product lines that remain key markets for Dow decades later. Products included a range of chemistries for the agricultural, pharmaceutical, water purification, energy and automotive industries.

In the depths of the Depression, Willard H. Dow expanded Dow research at a time when other companies cut back. Midland’s Physics Lab, headed by its brilliant director, John Grebe, was responsible for a long list of innovations, including automatic controls, DOWTHERM™ products, waste disposal bacteria, ethylene research, styrene, STYROFOAM™, PVC, Saran, ion exchange resins, polystyrene and Ethafoam. Learn more about John Grebe and Dow’s “Idea Factory.”

– Edgar Britton, Dow’s director of organic research

™Ethafoam is a trademark of Sealed Air Corporation