Instruments & Innovation

General view of the Machine Room in the Tabulating Department at the Dow Chemical Company facilities located in Midland, Michigan. Several employees and machines, including tabulator, sorter, and interpreter units, are…

General view of key punch operators transcribing written data into tabulating cards in the Tabulating Department at the Dow Chemical Company facilities located in Midland, Michigan. The operators are identified as…

General view of unidentified employees at work in the machine tabulating room at the Dow Chemical Company facilities located in Midland, Michigan. Per an article in the December 16, 1947 edition of The Brine Well, the…

Close-up view of IBM Corporation customer engineer Neil Grover servicing the electrical relays on an alphabetic tabulator in the Tabulating Department at the Dow Chemical Company facilities located in Midland, Michigan.…

General view of an unidentified employee at work in the Styron manufacturing facilities at the Dow Chemical Company plant located in Midland, Michigan. Styron is the trade name for Styrenic plastics historically…

General view of employees examining a Styron belt (also known as a ribbon) as it is extruded from a machine in the Styron manufacturing facilities at the Dow Chemical Company plant located in Midland, Michigan. Per…

General view of unidentified employees at work in the Styron manufacturing facilities at the Dow Chemical Company plant located in Midland, Michigan. A Styron belt (also known as a ribbon) is visible being extruded from…

General view of packaged rolls of saran film at a Dow Chemical Company manufacturing facility in Midland, Michigan. Initially developed for the U.S. Army to wrap arms and equipment for transport during World War II,…

Close-up view of an unidentified employee at work in the saran film manufacturing facilities at the Dow Chemical Company plant located in Midland, Michigan. Initially developed for the U.S. Army to wrap arms and…

General view of a conveyor belt transporting cases of Saran Wrap at a Dow Chemical Company manufacturing facility in Midland, Michigan. Initially developed for the U.S. Army to wrap arms and equipment for transport…

General view of sheets of saran film moving through a rolling machine at a Dow Chemical Company manufacturing facility in Midland, Michigan. Initially developed for the U.S. Army to wrap arms and equipment for transport…

Elevated view of a conveyor belt transporting boxes of Saran Wrap at a Dow Chemical Company manufacturing facility in Midland, Michigan. Initially developed for the U.S. Army to wrap arms and equipment for transport…

General view of a conveyor belt transporting rolls of Saran Wrap at a Dow Chemical Company manufacturing facility in Midland, Michigan. Initially developed for the U.S. Army to wrap arms and equipment for transport…

Elevated view of a conveyor belt transporting boxes of Saran Wrap at a Dow Chemical Company manufacturing facility in Midland, Michigan. Initially developed for the U.S. Army to wrap arms and equipment for transport…

Two views of an unidentified employee observing the extrusion of a saran bubble from a rolling machine at the Dow Chemical Company plant in Midland, Michigan. During production, saran film passed through a series of…

Four views showing various stages of the extrusion of saran bubbles from a rolling machine at the Dow Chemical Company plant in Midland, Michigan. The employee visible in the photographs is unidentified. During…

General view of the extrusion of saran bubbles from rolling machines at the Dow Chemical Company plant in Midland, Michigan. During production, molten saran polymer was extruded from circular dies, then cooled and…

General view of employee Louis Vallaincourt observing the extrusion of a saran bubble from a rolling machine at the Dow Chemical Company plant in Midland, Michigan. During production, saran film passed through a series…

Two views of the vertical retort and wood loading conveyor at the Cliffs Dow wood sawmill and distillation plant located in Marquette, Michigan. Seeking a source of raw material for its new plastic, ethylcellulose, the…

General view of a section of the wood storage at the Cliffs Dow sawmill and wood distillation plant located in Marquette, Michigan. The employee visible in the photograph is unidentified.

Seeking a source of raw…

General view of an unidentified employee standing on top of a pile of logs at the Cliffs Dow sawmill and wood distillation plant located in Marquette, Michigan. An Insley Excavator is visible on the right-hand side of…

General view of an unidentified employee standing on top of a pile of logs at the Cliffs Dow sawmill and wood distillation plant located in Marquette, Michigan. An Insley Excavator is visible on the left-hand side of…

Elevated view of the sawmill at the Cliffs Dow wood distillation plant located in Marquette, Michigan taken from the perspective of the vertical retort, with view of wood storage in background. Seeking a source of raw…

General view of three unidentified employees poling and transferring logs from a hot pond to the washer and sawmill conveyor at the Cliffs Dow wood distillation plant located in Marquette, Michigan. Invented around…

General view of the vertical retort and wood loading conveyor at the Cliffs Dow sawmill and wood distillation plant located in Marquette, Michigan. Providing a sense of scale, two unidentified employees are visible in…