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Overview

Gibbstown, New Jersey, was the site of DuPont’s first major product diversification effort. In 1880 Lammot du Pont convinced Henry du Pont, an avowed enemy of dynamite, to enter the market by establishing the Repauno Chemical Company on the banks of Repaupo Creek near Gibbstown. (The slight change in spelling came about because “Repauno” was considered more euphonious than “Repaupo.”) Repauno was initially founded as a joint venture, with stock held equally by DuPont, Laflin & Rand and Lammot himself. DuPont became the majority owner after Lammot’s death in an explosion at the plant in 1884. Led by J. Amory Haskell and Hamilton Barksdale, Repauno became a leader in the production of high explosives.

Gibbstown is also the birthplace of DuPont’s formal research program. Lammot had been doing research there since the beginning, but in 1902 a more ambitious program was instituted with the establishment of Eastern Laboratory. During 70 years in existence, the laboratory helped improve high explosives and also played a significant role in the development of new products ranging from tetraethyl lead in the 1920s to industrial diamonds in the 1960s. The production of high explosives at Repauno was halted in 1954 due to encroaching real estate development but ammonia was produced there until 1969. Chemical intermediates manufacture and work at Eastern Laboratory continued into the 1970s. In 1999 DuPont sold its industrial diamond business, leaving only one major product line—sodium nitrite—still in production at Gibbstown.

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