DOW

BACKGROUND

• Herbert Henry Dow (1866–1930), founder of the Dow Chemical Company, was an early electrochemical pioneer.

BACKGROUND CONTINUED

• The son of a master mechanic who earned his living by making improvements in small factories in Connecticut and Ohio. He was born in Ontario, Canada.

TIES TO MICHIGAN

• He found out that brine in Midland, Michigan was the most bitter brine in the nation second to only Canton Ohio. The reason the brine was so bitter was because it was combined with Lithium (duh).

DOW HIMSELF

• After Dow’s first company went bankrupt, he moved to Midland in 1890 and organized the Midland Chemical Company. There he oxidized the brine by electrolysis, using electricity supplied by a secondhand 15-volt generator turned by the old steam engine in the flour mill he had rented in Midland. And the rest they say is history.

CONTINUED

• The Dow Chemical Company is a leader in specialty chemicals delivering products and solutions to markets. If it's a chemical chances are it's Dow chemicals.