E.I. du Pont built U.S. gunpowder plant

It is the birthday of French chemist E.I. Du Pont (1771), who established a gunpowder manufacturing plant in Delaware in 1804. E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company grew to be one of the largest chemical companies in the world. As a youth, du Pont had learned advance gunpowder processing in France. His family emigrated to the United States when their moderate political views put them in danger after the French revolution. Young du Pont didn’t expect to become a gunpowder manufacturer in America but he found the quality of American powder inferior and sought to improve it.