Theodore Swann
BornSeptember 6, 1886
Dandridge, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedFebruary 5, 1955(1955-02-05) (aged 68)
Birmingham, Alabama. U.S.
EducationCarson-Newman College
Virginia Institute
Known forFounder of Swann Chemical Company
SpouseCatherine McDonald Dunwoody
ChildrenCatherine M. Swann
Virginia Dunwoody Swann
Parent(s)John Samuel Swann
Sonora M. Williams

Theodore Swann (September 6, 1886 – February 5, 1955) was an American industrialist and early leader of the chemical industry.[1] He was described by one historian as "a flamboyant Birmingham mogul and New South industrialist."[2]

Hailing from east Tennessee, in his early working years, Swann was a power salesman for the Alabama Power Company.[3]

He established the Federal Phosphorus Company to produce concentrated phosphoric acid, mainly for use as a concentrated fertilizer, using a novel method to produce the acid from phosphate rock by heat treatment in an electric furnace.[3][4]

He later established the Swann Chemical Company, focused on production of PCBs for the emergent electrical industry. Swann Chemical Company operated a chemical manufacturing plant in Anniston, Alabama where PCBs were first made on an industrial scale after development of a new process under Swann's leadership.[5] In 1920, Swann gave his engineers the challenge of creating a process by which PCBs, up to that time very expensive and produced only in small quantities, could be produced in industrial quantities, and after much trial and error, they succeeded.[5] The plant was later bought by Monsanto Industrial Chemicals Co. in 1935.[6][7][8] The plant, just west of Anniston, had around 1,000 employees.[2] One historian wrote that, "In many ways, the spirit of Swann Chemical became the corporate culture of Monsanto."[2]

Swann's house in Birmingham, Alabama, built from 1927 to 1930, was at the time the largest residence in the city and cost $600,000 to build.[9][10]

While Monsanto became the most successful agrochemical corporation in the world, Swann began to slide into poverty. He was forced to sell his castle in 1945 when he filed for bankruptcy. He nearly made a comeback by selling a new design for a furnace to process iron ore to the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, but the dictator reneged after paying only a modest down payment. Theodore Swann died selling aluminum window frames on February 5, 1955.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Griffith, Edward; Saterfield, Catherine Green (April 2000). The Triumphs and Troubles of Theodore Swann. River City. ISBN 1880216574.
  2. 1 2 3 Spears, Ellen Griffith (April 2014). Baptized in PCBs: Race, Pollution, and Justice in an All-American Town. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-4696-1171-6.
  3. 1 2 Phenis, Albert (April 13, 1922). "Revolution in Methods of Fertilizer Production Seen in Electric Furnace". Manufacturer's Record: 51.
  4. ↑ Swann, Theodore (April 13, 1922). "Memorandum of the Phosphorous Acid Development by the Federal Phosphorous Company". Manufacturer's Record: 51.
  5. 1 2 3 Dracos, Ted (November 2010). Biocidal: Confronting the Poisonous Legacy of PCBs. Beacon Press. ISBN 9780807011553.
  6. ↑ "Poisoned By PCBs: "A Lack of Control"". Chemical Industry Archives. Archived from the original on 10 December 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  7. ↑ Head, Thomas R. III (Spring 2005). "PCBs—The Rise and Fall of an Industrial Miracle" (PDF). Natural Resources & Environment: 18. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  8. ↑ Montague, Peter. "How We Got Here -- Part 1: The History of Chlorinated Diphenyl (PCB's)". HudsonWatch.net.
  9. ↑ "Theodore Swann Residence". BhamWiki.
  10. ↑ Adams, Cathy (2009). "Architecturally Exact" (PDF). Portico: 42.
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