The Penn's Grove record., 1919-05-23
OVER THE RIVER
DUPONT COMPANY DEVELOPING
MOTORS
Powder Interests Embark Physically
Into The Business of General
Motors

1t was announced Wednesday that
the Development Department of E. l..
dupont de Nemours & Co. has taken
over a similar line of work for the
General Motors Corporation, in which
the DUPONT Co. has become heavily in
terested, as it is doing for the DUPONT
Co.
In the annual report made by Pierre
S. DUPONT, as president of the DUPONT
Co., it vas pointed out that an inter-
est amounting to o than 27 per
cent had been secured in the General
Motors Corporation, and it was added
that "this investment was made IN
such a way as to give opportunity for
financial organization to be of service
and at the same time increase greatly
our financial strength. The large en-
cheering and construction forces OF
our company, the development, legal
and accounting department facilities.
coupled with the demands of the
motor industry for talent of that kind
has furnished a connecting link
which seems desirable in all invest
ments." Acting on this suggested
line of procedure, the dupont Devel-
ment Department is now being carried
on virtually by two separate organlza-
tons, one to be known as the DUPONT
Development, handling problems
which pertain to the dupont Co., and
the other the Motors Development
Department, occupying itself with the
work of the General Motors Corpora
ton.
Competent Head For Each
DR.. Fin Spare, assistant director OF
the Development Department, be-
comes the head of the dupont branch,
with Dir. Leonard A. Yerkes as his as
sistant. DIR. Spare has been with the
since 1903 and is n of the
company's most valuable staff Of IN
v~estigators, as we'll as a leader in eX-
detrimental work along many CONNER
cial lines. After spending several
years in important chemical work, DR..
Sparre was made director of the du-
Pont Experimental Station in 1911.
He : a transferred to the Develop
ment Department on special assign
ment. In 1916 he vas n Of the COM
mission which went over to Norway
to investigate and take over for the
dupont Co. patents and rights for the
production of nitrogen from the air.
During 1917 he made another trip to
Europe to investigate, ON behalf of the
Ordnance Department and the dupont
Co., several chemical problems con-
nected with the war. He brought
back a great deal of valuable informa-
ton about the loading of high power
shells, and, with his report as a basis,
the company went into this line OF
munition production.
With Motor Division
John Lee Pratt has been appointed
director of the General Motors Devel-
opment Department and will continue
a line of work which he has been fol-
lowing for some time. He is a grad
ate of Virginia University degree IN
civil engineering. He also took the
course in junior electrical engineering.
Mr.. Pratt has been with the DUPONT
Co. almost continuously since July l.,
1905, and has handled a number of i'm
portant problems. He began as an
assistant engineer, stationed at Re
pauno, N. j., and has occupied a num-
Der of positions, each more important
than the II preceding it. At the
outbreak of the war he was stationed
in Chile, where the DUPONT Co. has eX-
tensive nitrate interests. He returned
from this field in October, 1914, to be-
come resident engineer at Hopewell,
Va, where the work of erecting the
worlds greatest %guncotton plant was
lust starting. In a short time he was
called back to the home office to be-
come head of the Developmnt and
Civil Engineering Division of the En-
gineering Department.