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SCKOTOF ACXIVITF AGAIN Is the Holston Ordnsnce Works, which dorln; World War II was the world's largest manufacturing unit of high explosives. RDX and Composition B, next only in destructiveness to the atomic bomb Itself, was made here. The site of the Holston Defense Corporation, HOW will be operated now on a much smaller basts than during wartime.Holston Defense CorporationFormedToDoWorkForUncleSamThe Holston Defense Corporation,a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eastman Kodak Company, started operations this week at Holston Ordnance Works, under a contract with the United States Government, it to announced Thursday.H. D. C. will undertake research, development and experimental work, and carry on such operations as may be required. Only a few buildings of H-O.W. will ba reactivated and put in operation. Work at present will be limited to laboratory Investigations and reactivation work on some buildings in the production area, Holston Defense Corporation officials said.Officers of the Holston Defense Corporation are James C. White, president, and H. G. Stone, vice president- W. EL Zugschwerdt will be plant manager at H. D. C. Among the initial group going to EL D. C. from Tennessee Eastman will be D, W. Lee, R- B. Herring, D. L. Bump, F. L. Hamilton, W. J. EL Bailey, J. L Moore and W. H. Pretsman.The work Holston Defense Corporation will - undertake for the United States Government at Holaton Ordnance Works will entaila relatively small number of employes,” Mr. White said, And it is contemplated that the plant will be manned by personnel of Tennessee Eastman employed and furloughed rolls.Holston Ordnance Works was operated by Tennessee Eastman during World War n for the production of RDX and its incorporation Into “composition Bt“ which la considered the most powerful explosive aside from the atomic bomb.RDX, in the form of Composition B/' was used in bombs over both Germany and Japan, but per-its greatest job was for underwater work where it was tremen-' s;y felt In the winning of the Battle of the Atlantic against the Axis submarines.HOW Was Bom In 1941The development of H.O.W. by Tennessee Eastman Corporationbegan on Nov. 4, 1941, when the Chief of Army Ordnance asked T. E. C. to work on one phase of a contemplated RDX process. Seventy-nine days later T, E. C, had accepted a National Defense Research Committee assignment to build a pilot plant to develop RDX manufacture, utilizing the chemistry of a method proposed by Dr.W. E. Bachman of the University of Michigan.In early February, working day and night, Eastman chemists and engineers revolutionized the Bachman process and made the first laboratory runs of RDX in a continuous reactor—a process designed to manufacture large amounts of explosive within the shortest period of time with minimum quantities in the process apparatus at any particular instant. The first pilot plant run was made on February 17 1942.In addition to the basic RDX process, Tennessee Eastman engineers developed a method of producing Composition B in pellet form and in a continuous manner. These pellets were given the nickname of “Jap Kisses with the thought in mind of their ultimate use. Thus was created a new and novel process in high explosive manufacture, and the first shipment of Composition B left the Eastman pilot plant for the naval mine depot at Yorktown, Va., onApril 25, 1942. The use of RDX for underwater combat against enemy submarines was so important that the pilot plant was kept in continuous operation until the largeplant at H. O. W. was completed. On June 6, 1942, Tennessee Eastman waa requested and authorized by the War Department to design production buildings and equipment for the large scale plant to be called the Holston Ordnance Works.Operation Began In 1043Operation of the Holston Ordnance Works began on April 29, 1943, and the first full carload was shipped on May 14 of the- same year.In a short time the Holston Ordnance Works became the world’s largest manufacturing unit of high explosives. Tennessee Eastman will not disclose the production figures. However, many thousands nf tons of Composition B was produced at a cost of approximately one-fourth that visualized by the Ordnance Department at the time Eastman was originally called Into this undertaking.Once again, in the interest af national defense, Eastman has been requested by our government to carry on research work and minor operations in the RDX program. In fulfilling that request the Holston Defense Corporation was organized and is now at work.ChctmPisithRlituithbfarwsetuk«toGsa/a »*ecrsIthletoto«3 +
Newspaper Details
Kingsport Times
Kingsport, Tennessee, US
Thu, Apr 14, 1949
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Kingsport P.
TN, USA 30 Mar 2022
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