F. S. ELFRED
F. S. Elfred, executive vice president and a di
rector of Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation,
began his career as a mining engineer in Picher,
Oklahoma, after graduation from the Missouri
School of Mines, Rolla, Mo.
Mr. Elfred was associated with Evans Wallower
Zinc, Inc., Cardin, Oklahoma, for 18 years, ad
vancing from engineer to sales manager, vice pres
ident and general manager and was for six years
its president. He had also been president of the
Jane E. Mining Company and the Baxter Chat
Company, both of Baxter Springs, Kansas.
Joining the Olin organization as an executive
of the former Western Cartridge Company in
1938, Mr. Elfred was made general manager of
the Explosives Division in 1944. He was elected
a director of Olin Industries in 1952 and was ap
pointed executive vice president in 1952.
Mr. Elfred is a director of the Chicago Great
Western Railway and the New Park Mining Com
pany, Salt Lake City, Utah, and the Matholin Cor-
F. S. Elfred
poration.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON OLIN
MATHIESON CHEMICAL CORPORATION
OLIN MATHIESON PRODUCTS
The recent merger of Olin Industries, Inc., and
the Mathieson Chemical Corporation to form the
Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation brought to
gether two companies each with a distinguished
history of accomplishment. It represented a join
ing of equals. Both companies were founded in
1892, and grew during the ensuing sixty-two years
to approximately similar size.
At the time of the merger Olin operated three
government-owned plants and was reactivating a
fourth. The four plants employed approximately
8,500 persons engaged in the production of mili
tary ammunition and explosives as part of the na
tional defense program.
Olin originated as a manufacturer of black pow
der in East Alton, Illinois, while Mathieson began
as a regional alkali producer. The rise of both
companies represented growth of the original busi
ness operations combined with expansion into re
lated fields, and the acquisition of companies pos
sessing qualities and possibilities logical to the de
velopment of the respective enterprises.
The new company resulting from the merger,
known as the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corpora
tion has approximately 36,000 employees, 45 plants
in 24 states in this country, and 16 plants in for
eign countries.
MATHIESON PRODUCTS
The Mathieson operations fall into three broad
classifications: industrial chemicals, agricultural
chemicals, pharmaceuticals and related products.
Mathieson is a principal manufacturer of six of
the basic chemicals produced in this country in
largest volume: soda ash, caustie soda, chlorine sul
phuric acid, ammonia, and methanol.
These chemicals are used in the manufacture of
a wide variety of finished products including alum
inum, paper, cellophane, textiles, synthetic fibres,
plastics, glass, detergents, fertilizers, pesticides, ex
plosives, petroleum products, and other chemicals.
The company is an important producer of bicar
bonate of soda, used in baking powder and fire ex
tinguishers, and is one of the w'orld’s largest manu
facturers of carbon dioxide and "dry ice.”
In the rapidly growing organic chemicals field,
Mathieson produces from natural gas ethylene ox
ide, used in the production of synthetic fibers and
synthetic detergents, and ethylene glycol, the main
ingredient in permanent type automotive anti
freezes. It also produces propane and butane
"bottled gas.”
Mathieson has long been a principal producer
of synthetic fertilizers and agricultural chemical
specialties.
The production of high-analysis, pelletized fer
tilizers was pioneered in the United States by
Mathieson. These concentrated materials contain
twice as much or more of the most needed plant
foods—nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium—as
the ordinary fertilizers.
Mathieson also makes standard mixed fertilizers