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In Mr. Otto Haas's words on the 50th anniversary of the company:
"This is the proper time and place to remember that it was Dr.Otto Rohm in Darmstadt, Germany, who through his inventions in the field of leather created the foundation from which we could start to build up the Philadelphia firm. He was a true inventor, full of ideas, and possessed of a strong will to carry his ideas through to realization in spite of obstacles. We were bound together in close friendship until his death in 1939. His crowning work was the development of acrylics from an almost unknown substance to unique chemical blocks which still have great possibilities to many industries."
Acrylic monomers are the heart of Rohm and Haas Company. We produce two types: acrylic acid (and acrylate esters) which is the starting point for everything from latex paints and coatings to biodegradable detergents, adhesives and superabsorbent diapers; and methacrylate monomers, used primarily to make paints and plastics.
Dr. Rohm's 1901 doctoral thesis addressed the polymerization of acrylic acid. Around 1920, Rohm fournd new routes to make both acrylate and methacrylate starting materials. Shortly thereafter, Plexiglas acrylic was born, to be followed by a string of successes — Acryloid acrylic oil additives, Primal leather finishes and Rhoplex textile finishes.
In years to follow the quest turned for finding more efficient ways of making acrylate and methacrylate monomers. Otto Haas knew that the cost of acrylic products limited expansion into markets like paints and coating. Company scientists eventually developed a less costly manufacturing process which started with natural gas and ammonia. This process was successfully tested at a pilot facility in Bristol, Pennsylvania.
In August 1946, Rohm and Haas purchased a 534-acre tract in Deer Park, Texas, 15 miles southeast of Houston. This was an ideal site. Three different pipeline companies served the area with natural gas, and several nearby petrochemical plants could supply other starting materials.
Mr. Haas originally planned plant construction over several years, so he could finance it out of retained earnings. But in October, DuPont said they would no longer be able to supply sodium cyanide (a key raw material) beyond December 1947. Building a cyanide plant in Houston, therefore, became a 15-month crash program. It was the largest single construction program ever undertaken by the company, and every available resource was funneled to the project. Mr. Haas literally mortgaged the company based on his faith in the future of acrylic chemistry.
The Houston plant soon became the preferred site for the manufacture of intermediate products for company use. It was close to source materials, large and efficient and economically prepared to launch acrylic technology into the paint and coatings market.
The rest is history. Rohm and Haas brought acrylic technology to market that led to the easy-to-use water-based paints found on the shelves of today's Home Depot, Lowes, K-Mart and Sherwin-Williams stores. The plant in Deer Park helped launch this technology into other markets as well including plastics additives, adhesives and super absorbentpolymers.
Today, the Deer Park plant is the largest manufacturer of methacrylic and acrylic monomers in the world. The success of acrylic technology during the past century cannot be overstated. Dr. Rohm's 1901 doctoral thesis was the genesis of an idea; Mr. Haas's business acumen helped turn it into a marketable reality. A large portion of acrylic chemistry's success belongs to the dedicated workforce of Houston today — and to the legions of workers and scientists who came before them.
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