Standard Oil of New Jersey

Two months after Ethyl Corporation s formation, however, the infant company was threatened with extinction. One day Ernest Oelgert, a worker in a pilot tetraethyl lead factory in Elizabeth, New Jersey, became delirious and screamed that three figures were coming at him. Later that day Standard Oil of New Jersey, which operated the factory, also sent home ill William McSweeney, a former general in the Irish Republican Army. The next morning McSweeney s sister-in-law had to summon a policeman, who needed... 

In the 1930s, Standard Oil of New Jersey (7) was the first company to employ on a commercial scale the indirect conversion of methane, the main component of natural gas, via steam reforming to give synthesis gas, which is a mixture of H2 and CO, with the H2/CO ratio depending on the reactant composition. C02 is also formed in synthesis gas production, and sulfur compounds are present as impurities. Synthesis gas can be used as a feedstock for numerous chemicals and fuels and as a source of pure hydrogen or carbon monoxide. 

Standard Method of Test for Distillation of Petroleum Products, 24 284 Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon), 24 259 Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), 21 165... 

Chemical and Standard Oil of New Jersey combined their patents and produced leaded gasoline under the Ethyl brand name. 

In the fall of 1938, eight companies (Standard Oil of New Jersey, Standard of Indiana, Texas Company, Shell, Anglo-Iranian, M. W. Kellogg, Universal Oil Products, and I. G. Farben) organized a consortium, Catalytic Research... 

The timing of the petroleum companies entry into the chemical industry determined their long-term position in the industry. The four that commercialized petrochemicals before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor— Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon by 1993), Shell, Standard Oil of California (Chevron by 1993), and Phillips—were the first movers. By the 1950s they had become the leaders in the basic feedstocks and commodity polymers such as polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, and polypropylene. Those companies that entered after 1941 achieved success by focusing on specific niche products in the manner of the smaller U.S. companies. As shown in Table 1.1, these include Arco (Atlantic Refining Company), Amoco (Standard Oil of Indiana), Ashland, and BP America (acquirer of Standard Oil of Ohio). 

By 1923, leaded gas was being pumped at Dayton, Ohio. By the following year, GM, DuPont Chemical Company (which controlled about a third of GM s stock) and Standard Oil of New Jersey, combined their various patents and produced leaded gasoline under the Ethyl brand name. 

Other formulations of high-octane fuel were known, but all had their problems. Ethyl alcohol, called ethanol by chemists, could solve the knock problem, but the new prohibition law made it hard to get supplies for experiments. Moreover, Midgley s boss, the famed automobile engineer Charles Kettering, feared that production of ethanol in the quantities required to fuel cars would use up food crops. Tetraethyl lead promised enormous profits, so General Motors pushed ahead. To manufacture the additive, the auto company contracted with its sister company DuPont and with Standard Oil of New Jersey. Production lines were opened at DuPont s Deepwater plant in southern New Jersey and Standard s Bayway refinery in Elizabeth.10... 

Spandex, 129, 148, 205, 230, 264 SPARG process, 57 Spec 107Acars, 117, 118 Standard Oil of New Jersey, 43 Standardized liquid storage, 114 Stanford Research Institute (SRI), 194... 

I always said that in those days the lab used to be like a worm. There was little or no organization. Now things are carefully departmentalized. A good deal of my time at Whiting was spent on cat cracking. Everyone was interested in that field. Houdry got Sun Oil involved and they developed a fixed bed process. Standard Oil of New Jersey went ahead and set up a powdered oil process. 

Cited from Forbes and O Beirne, op. cit. (25), p. 456. Royal Dutch/Shell, in common with ICI and Standard Oil of New Jersey, also became closely involved with I.G. Farben in negotiations over high pressure processes for coal to oil conversion. This and other aspects of high pressure industrial chemistry during the interwar period are reviewed in Anthony S. Travis, The High Pressure Chemists (Wembley Brent Schools Industry Project, 1984). 

In the 1930 s, Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Exxon) attempted to license the Houdry technology but were discouraged by the high license fee set by Houdry of 50,000,000 (13, 14). This fee, adjusted via the Consumer Price Index, is over 750,000,000 in today s currency This led the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey (Jersey) to develop new catalytic cracking technology. Their initial work was based upon the fixed bed concept but was quickly refocused upon the more efficient fluid bed design to avoid the inefficiencies and complexities of the cyclic fixed beds (15). 

Two additional Model 1 units were being constructed, one for Standard Oil of New Jersey at their Bayway New Jersey refinery and one for its Humble Oil ... 

Exxon. This is part of the giant Exxon Corporation, which is perhaps still better known by its former name of Standard Oil of New Jersey in the U.S. A. 

On American business abroad in the 1920s, see Wilkins (ref. 7). This book has data on Du Font s overseas activities Du Pont invested abroad in niches where it had special expertise (some of these were supplies for General Motors business abroad, i.e., artificial leather for car seats and finishes for car exteriors). In the United States and abroad, Du Pont was not involved in petrochemicals, but it kept well informed on everything about I.G. Farben s relationships with Standard Oil of New Jersey and with Shell. 

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