DuPont

Lore & Background

He started the company at the Eleutherian Mills, on the Brandywine Creek, near Wilmington, Delaware, two years after du Pont and his family left France to escape the French Revolution and religious persecution against Huguenot Protestants. The company began as a manufacturer of gunpowder, as du Pont noticed that the industry in North America was lagging behind Europe. The company grew quickly, and by the mid-19th century had become the largest supplier of gunpowder to the United States military, supplying one-third to one-half the powder used by the Union Army during the American Civil War. The Eleutherian Mills site is now a museum and a National Historic Landmark. In the 1880s, DuPont began production of dynamite and, in the 1890s, it began to produce smokeless powder. By the beginning of the 20th century DuPont controlled nearly two-thirds of the entire explosives market. Charles Lee Reese was appointed as director and the company began centralizing the research departments. The courts declared that the company's dominance of the explosives business constituted a monopoly and ordered divestment. The court ruling resulted in the creation of the Hercules Powder Company and the Atlas Powder Company. It later was proven to be responsible for health problems due to C8 (Perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA). In 1950, DuPont agreed to build the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina as part of the effort to create a hydrogen bomb.

Reader's Guide

DuPont's significance lies in its transformation from a gunpowder manufacturer into one of the world's largest chemical companies, driving innovation in materials science throughout the 20th century. Its development of synthetic polymers such as nylon, Teflon, Kevlar, and Lycra revolutionized textiles, cookware, protective gear, and countless industrial applications. The company's research laboratories, including the DuPont Experimental Station, were among the first industrial research facilities in the United States, setting a model for corporate R&D. The company's legacy includes both groundbreaking materials that improved daily life and environmental and health concerns, such as the later discovery that Teflon production involved PFOA, linked to health problems.

Did You Know?

• DuPont supplied one-third to one-half of the gunpowder used by the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Founding & Early Origins

DuPont traces its origins to 1802, when Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours—a French-American chemist and industrialist—established a gunpowder operation at the Eleutherian Mills along the Brandywine Creek near Wilmington, Delaware. The venture was born out of displacement: du Pont and his family had fled France two years earlier to escape the French Revolution and the religious persecution targeting Huguenot Protestants. He raised capital in France and imported gunpowder machinery to build the operation. Recognizing that North American gunpowder production lagged behind European standards, du Pont saw a clear commercial opportunity. The company grew rapidly, and by the mid-nineteenth century it had become the largest supplier of premium gunpowder to the U.S. military, providing between one-third and one-half of the powder consumed by the Union Army during the Civil War. The original Eleutherian Mills site endures today as a museum and a designated National Historic Landmark, preserving the physical roots of what would become one of the most consequential industrial enterprises in American history.

Materials Science Revolution

One of DuPont's most defining contributions to modern industry was its transformation from an explosives maker into a materials science powerhouse. In 1903, the company established the DuPont Experimental Station, one of the earliest industrial research laboratories in the United States, and began work on cellulose chemistry and lacquers. That institutional commitment to research bore extraordinary fruit throughout the twentieth century. DuPont scientists developed an extraordinary roster of polymers, including neoprene, nylon, Corian, Teflon, Mylar, Kapton, Kevlar, Nomex, Tyvek, Sorona, Vespel, Corfam, and Lycra. Wallace Carothers, hired in 1928, is credited with inventing neoprene, the first polyester superpolymer, and nylon in 1935. Beyond polymers, DuPont's chemists created Freon—chlorofluorocarbons that reshaped the refrigerant industry—and synthetic pigments and paints such as ChromaFlair. The company also produced synthetic ammonia through a joint venture with a French textile firm in the 1920s. At its peak, DuPont was the largest chemical company in the world by sales, a testament to the sheer breadth of its materials innovations.

Antitrust & Corporate Restructuring

DuPont's dominance repeatedly attracted regulatory scrutiny that reshaped both the company and the broader chemical industry. In 1912, after the company had acquired several smaller chemical firms and controlled nearly two-thirds of the explosives market, courts ruled under the Sherman Antitrust Act that its position constituted a monopoly. The mandated divestment gave rise to the Hercules Powder Company and the Atlas Powder Company, while DuPont retained single-base nitrocellulose powders and went on to develop its Improved Military Rifle smokeless powder line. A second major antitrust intervention came in 1957, when the U.S. Supreme Court, applying the Clayton Antitrust Act, compelled DuPont to divest its General Motors shares after Pierre S. du Pont had served as both president and chairman of the automaker. In the modern era, DuPont's chemicals operations were spun off into Chemours in July 2015. Then in August 2017, DuPont merged with Dow Chemical to form DowDuPont; eighteen months later, that entity split into three independent companies, with the specialty products divisions reverting to the DuPont name.

Modern Business Structure

Today, DuPont operates through two principal divisions that together account for all 2025 revenues. The Healthcare & Water Technologies division, representing 47 percent of revenue, focuses on medical packaging and water treatment. Its product portfolio includes Tyvek packaging, TYCHEM protective suits, AMBERLITE ion exchange resins, FILMTEC reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membrane elements, and INGE and ITEGRATEC ultrafiltration modules. The Diversified Industrials division, accounting for the remaining 53 percent, serves repair-and-remodel construction and industrial applications. Its offerings span Tyvek house wrap, Styrofoam insulation, CORIAN solid surfaces, Vespel shapes and parts, MOLYKOTE lubricants, BETAFORCE, and BETASEAL. Headquartered and organized in Delaware, the company continues to serve healthcare, water, construction, and industrial markets. The two-division structure reflects the post-2017 corporate architecture that emerged after the DowDuPont split, positioning DuPont as a specialty products firm rather than a broad-based chemical producer.