Richest dupont family member
Éleuthère Irénée du Pont
French-American chemist and industrialist (–)
Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours (dew-PONT, DEW-pont,[1]French:[eløtɛʁiʁenedypɔ̃d(ə)nəmuʁ]; 24 June – 31 October ) was a French-American chemist and industrialist who founded the gunpowder manufacturer E.
I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. His descendants, the du Pont family, have been one of the richest and most prominent American families since the 19th century, with generations of influential businessmen, politicians and philanthropists. In , du Pont was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia.[2]
Early life and education
Du Pont was born 24 June , in Paris, the son of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and Nicole-Charlotte Marie-Louise le Dée de Rencourt.
His father was a political economist who had been elevated to the nobility in by letters patent granted by King Louis XVI, allowing him to carry the honorable de Nemours suffix. Growing up on his father's estate, "Bois des Fossés", near Égreville, young du Pont was enthusiastic about his studies in most subjects, and showed particular interest in explosives.
Du Pont was a Huguenot.[3]
In the fall of , du Pont entered Collège de France in Paris. Two years later, he was accepted by the friend of his father and noted chemist Antoine Lavoisier as a student in the Régie des poudres, the government agency responsible for the manufacture of gunpowder.
It was from Lavoisier that he gained his expertise in nitrate extraction and manufacture.[4] He studied "advanced explosives production techniques"[5]
After a brief apprenticeship, he took a position at the government-owned powder works in Essonne but quit after Lavoisier left.[6]
Du Pont eventually sailed before his family and landed at Newport, Rhode Island on 1 January , along with his father and his brother's family.
By , he had established both his business and his family home, Eleutherian Mills, on the Brandywine Creek in Delaware.
E i dupont de nemours biography death DuPont acquired the corporation's health and nutrition business, while selling its herbicide and insecticide properties. Retrieved November 12, Archived from the original on May 16, Retrieved December 12,Du Pont's 1 January arrival in the United States is still celebrated annually by his descendants.[7]
Career
In , du Pont began to help his father manage their small publishing house in Paris, where they published a republican newspaper in support of governmental reforms in France.
Du Pont was a member of the pro-Revolution national guard and supported the Jacobins. However, on 20 August , both du Pont and his father participated in protecting the escape of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette when the Tuileries Palace was stormed. His father angered fellow revolutionaries by refusing to go along with the guillotine execution of Louis XVI, and the two men's moderate political views proved to be a liability in revolutionary France.
His father was arrested in , only avoiding execution because of the end of the Reign of Terror. In September , du Pont and his father spent a night in La Force prison while their home and presses were ransacked. These events led his father to lose hope in the political situation in France, and so he began making plans to move their family to America and aspired to create a model community of French émigrés. On 2 October , the du Pont family sold their publishing house and set sail for the United States.
Dupont de nemours tours Start-up was difficult, and despite significant growth during the War of , for the 32 years of his leadership he carried substantial debt, including loans to pension the widows and orphans of 40 workers killed in a terrible explosion at the powder works in We have formatted the material to follow our guidelines, which include our credit requirements. Archived from the original on February 1, Retrieved April 22,They reached Rhode Island on 1 January and began to settle in the home the eldest du Pont had secured in Bergen Point, New Jersey.
They soon set up an office in New York City to decide what their new line of business would be, but Éleuthère Irénée was not included in much of these plans. However, he saw the possibilities that his earlier apprenticeship with Lavoisier would allow him and his family in America.[8]
E.I.
du Pont de Nemours and Company
Du Pont had no thought of becoming involved with gunpowder manufacture again upon his arrival in the United States, but he brought with him an expertise in chemistry and gunpowder making, during a time when the quality of American-made gunpowder was very poor.
Delaware legend holds that he decided to go into the gunpowder business during a fateful hunting trip with Major Louis de Tousard, a former French artillery officer then employed by the United States Army to procure gunpowder supplies. Du Pont's gun misfired as he attempted to shoot a bird, which caused him to reflect on his powder-making apprenticeship with Lavoisier as a youth in France.
Du Pont commented on the inferior quality of the American-made powder they were using for hunting despite its high price.
At du Pont's request, Tousard arranged a tour of an American powder plant. He quickly deduced that the saltpeter being used was of good enough quality; however, the American refining process was poor and inefficient compared with the techniques he had learned in France.
E i dupont de nemours biography The company played a major role in the development of the U. Retrieved January 19, A subsequent class action lawsuit in alleged DuPont's actions led to widespread water contamination in West Virginia and Ohio and contributed to high rates of cancers and other health problems. Retrieved November 10,He began to think that he could use his experience from France to manufacture gunpowder of a higher quality in the United States and reform the current industry standard for refinery. With his father's blessing, he began to assemble capital for the construction of the first powder mills, and returned to France in the beginning of to procure the necessary financing and equipment.
The act of association was signed on 21 April , and the company was christened E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company since it was its namesake's ingenuity that had created this venture.[8] His gunpowder company was capitalized at $36, with 18 shares at $2, each. He purchased a site on Brandywine Creek for $6, There were several small buildings and a dam with foundations for a cotton-spinning mill which had been destroyed by fire.
The first gunpowder was produced in April [6]
Personal life
Du Pont married Sophie Dalmas (–) in , and they had eight children.
E i dupont de nemours biography wikipedia Retrieved April 22, Archived from the original on November 11, The agriculture division, DuPont Pioneer , made and sold hybrid seed and genetically modified seed , some of which produces genetically modified food. Bioinformational Philosophy and Postdigital Knowledge Ecologies.Death
Du Pont died on 31 October in Philadelphia, aged [9] The cause of death was not definitively specified due to "conflicting reports of either cholera or a heart attack" as its cause.[8] He was buried in the Du Pont de Nemours Cemetery on the family property in Wilmington, Delaware.
Legacy
The company du Pont founded would become one of the largest and most successful American corporations. By the midth century it was the largest supplier of gunpowder to the U.S. military, and supplied as much as 40 percent of the powder used by the Union Army during the American Civil War.[10]
Du Pont's sons, Alfred V.
du Pont (–) and Henry du Pont (–), managed the plant after his death, following three years of tutelage by his son-in-law, Jacques Antoine Bidermann. His grandson, Lammot du Pont I (–), was the first president of the United States Gunpowder Trade Association, popularly known as the Powder Trust.[6]
See also
References
Further reading
- Auguste Moutié, Honoré Théodoric Paul Joseph d'Albert duc de Luynes, "Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Notre-Dame de la Roche", Levy-Saint-Nom, France.
- E i dupont de nemours mansion
- E i dupont de nemours biography pdf
- Dupont de nemours geneva
- du Pont, Pierre S. (). Genealogy of the du Pont Family –. Wilmington: Hambleton Printing & Publishing. ASIN&#;BFG8N6.
- Dutton, William S. ().
E i dupont de nemours mansion: Connelly Curtis J. Archived from the original on December 9, Read Edit View history. Tools Tools.
Du Pont, One Hundred and Forty Years. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ASIN&#;BDVEZ0.
Notre-Dame de la Roche (Augustinian abbey), Paris,