Evening star., 1952-07-24
Lommot du Pont Dies; Helped
To Develop Industrial Empire
Deuth Comes at II
To Key Figure in
Chemical Program
BY the Assoeiaied Press

NEW LONDON, Conn, July "a.
--Lammot du Pont, 71-year-old in
dustrialist who, with his two
brothers built E. I. du Pont de Ne
mourS & Co., Inc, into one of the
great chemical companies of the
world, died in a hospital here to-
day of an undisclosed ailment.
DR.. Edward Gipstein, a heart
specialist. announced only that Mr..
Du Pont, native of Wilmington,
Del, had been i'll for "a month
or So at his summer home on
Fishers Island.
Dr.. Gipstein said Mr.. Du Pont
entered the hospital July IL, but
he declined to disclose the nature
Of the illness.
Planned Vast Research.
Lammot du Pont, youngest of
the three hotherS who fashioned
a mighty industrial machine, was
a man of science.
To him, research was a way of
life. And the costly, painStaking
research which he planned during
IA years as president of E. I. du
Pont de NemourS & Co.. Inc,
helped produce much of the ar
senal with which the United
States fought World War II.
Much of the credit for the crea-
ton of that arsenal belonged to
Lammont du Pont. For it was he
who signalled forward path dur
ing the darkest hours of the de-
preston of the early 1905. when
the company was hard hit by the
general economic collapse.
Out of that research came ny
lon, which achieved the greatest
spontaneous success of any chemi-
cal product ever discovered. Out
OF it, too, came the industrial
know-how which du Pont poured
into the huge plutonium plant at
Hanford, Wash, built by du Pont
and operated by it for the govern
ment at a fee of 81 during World
War II. Plutonium was compo-
nent of the atomic bomb.
Started Research Program.
On one spring morning in 1927,
while Mr. Du Pont was busily
chopping. he set the machinery in
motion which resulted in the syn
thesis of nylon, the first man
made fiber.
'On that day, DR.. c. M. A. Stine,
director of du Points chemical de-
partment, called on him and out
lined a revolutionary program OF
research into the fundamental
secrets of matter, a field of interest
at that time chiefly to colleges.
Mr.. Du Pont walked to the
woodpile, picked up his ak. began
chopping-and thinking. The de-
cision was a big one, and it in
volved research such as no other
profit-making enterprise ever had
undertaken. In the end, he Or
dered the program under way.
Required Eight Years.
Eight years later, Du Pont
scientists succeeded in synthesiz-
ing nylon. Lammot du Pont per-
sonally tried out the first nylon
product, toothbrush. It was un-
doubtedly the worlds most ex-
pensive toothbrush, costing SIS
million to produce.
Lammot du Pont was president
of the du Pont company from 1926
to 1910. following his brothers,
Pierre and Irenee, in that position.
From 1910 to 1948 he was chair
man of the board. It was during
the latter period that the company
was called upon to use its scien-
tific skills in making material for
the atomic bomb. Lammot du
Pont shared in many of the de-
cisions.
Lammot du Pont was born near
Wilmington October IL, 1880, and
was named for his father, who
was the first American to build
a dynamite plant. The father was
killed in an explosion at the plant
when Lammot was 3 years old.
His eldest brother Pierre be-
came the titular head of the
family at the age of IA and it was
his leadership that started the Du