Atlas Rectangular|ATLAS RECTANGULAR 100 X 6 - Atlas Powder Co. rectangular 100 No. 6 cap tin, 2 5/8 in. x 2 1/8 in. x 1 9/16 in. high;(The Atlas Powder Company was organized in Delaware in 1912 to comply with the decree of the federal court dissolving the E. I. Dupont de Nemours Powder Company. Dupont was split up into three companies: Dupont, Hercules, and Atlas. The name Atlas was chosen to represent the Atlas brand of dynamite which had been assigned to the new company by the courts. Atlas started out with a capitalization of $5 million with William Webster as its new president. Atlas was assigned six blasting powder mills in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Illinois, Kansas and Oklahoma as well as four dynamite plants in New Jersey, Michigan, Missouri and California. In 1916, Atlas bought the Fort Pitt Powder Company, incorporated in 1911 in Pennsylvania, and its powder mill at Putneyville, PA. Also in 1916, Atlas greatly increased its production capabilities with the purchase of the Giant Powder Company. Giant was the first company in America to manufacture dynamite. Organized in California in 1867, Giant became a major explosives firm on the west coast and a significant acquisition as Atlas expanded its operations westward. In the early 1960s, Atlas Powder Company changed its corporate name to Atlas Chemical Industries to reflect its business focus. In 1972 Atlas Chemical Industries was purchased by Imperial Chemical Industries PLC (ICI), a major chemical-manufacturing company in Great Britain. See Van Gelder and Schlatter, History of the Explosives Industry in America, pp 309-312 and 431-478)

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