Springer Chemical and Petroleum Industries at Newtown Creek: History and Technology (SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science)

This book reconstructs Newtown Creek’s industrial expansion during the period that began in the 1840s and continued through the early years of the 20th century: in that period, production of reagent chemicals and materials grew as practitioners, alert to advances in chemical science, developed and applied increasingly sophisticated production technologies. Advances in methods of production and growth in volume of materials produced along Newtown Creek in the second half of the 19th century had profound consequence for the practice of industrial chemistry in the United States and for the economic vitality of the City of New York. Industrial practice progressed from the recovery of animal tissues to the refining of petroleum and production of high-purity metals from mineral ores. With attention to each company’s technical expertise and principal products, this book examines the interdependence of the chemicals- and materials-producing industries that took root and thrived along Newtown Creek’s industrial shores. The author also traces Newtown Creek’s history alongside the stories of well-known New Yorkers – Peter Cooper, Charles Pratt, John D. and William Rockefeller – and other less celebrated or less notorious characters. This book is a valuable account for New York’s history in manufacture of chemicals and refining of petroleum, and will appeal to researchers, scholars and historians interested in chemical and refining technologies that took form at Newton Creek.