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Overview

DuPont blasting powder played a prominent role in the nation’s early development. Westward settlement in the first half of the 19th century entailed massive excavation and construction projects for roads, canals and railroads. Already a manufacturer of black powder for hunting and military purposes, DuPont began selling its product for these industrial and commercial uses. In 1857 a breakthrough in industrial blasting powder occurred when Lammot du Pont successfully substituted South American sodium nitrate for the Indian potassium nitrate traditionally used in black powder. This new “B” blasting powder reduced costs by freeing American powder makers from the British controls on Indian nitrate while providing a superior explosive force. In 1859 DuPont made its first expansion outside the Brandywine valley when it acquired the Wapwallopen blasting powder mill near the coal mines of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. DuPont blasting powder continued to serve the needs of industrial customers through the Civil War and Reconstruction era. By the 1870s, however, the new explosive dynamite had proven to be three times as powerful as black powder and production declined rapidly after DuPont entered the dynamite business itself.

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