Like all the other companies, Monsanto knows it could not long survive the intense competition without a continual stream of new chemicals for its customers. The chemists who provide Monsanto with 42 new products a year work with tools ranging from vacuum cleaners to the radioactive chambers of Mound Laboratory, Miamisburg, Ohio. Most of their discoveries come about by deliberate planning. Monsanto's President Thomas, an amateur gardener, puts his research chemists to work to, find a chemical that would keep soil loose and crumbly for better plant growth. The result, Krilium, has become Monsanto's best-known product.
Some new developments are almost pure accident.
A Monsanto chemist was once looking for a chemical to make textiles water repellent. One chemical was no good as a water repeller, but it seemed promising for a completely different use-as a detergent. Although only one out of 10 chemicals developed in the lab reaches commercial production, more than two fifths of Monsanto's total profit in the past decade has come from new products developed during those years. The location of each plastic in graph is determined by the relative amounts of components it contains.