Delaware River Chemical Works
- 1887

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Small JPG1200 x 1716px — 362 KBFull-sized JPG1361 x 1946px — 449 KBOriginal fileTIFF — 1361 x 1946px — 7.6 MBPamphlet containing product lists and descriptions of the various phosphate fertilizers manufactured by Baugh & Sons Company at the Delaware River Chemical Works facility.
Baugh & Sons Company was founded in 1855 by John Pugh Baugh (?-1882) and two of his sons, Edwin P. Baugh (?-1888) and Daniel Baugh (1836-1921) in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The company earned notoriety as one of the oldest and largest fertilizer manufacturers in the United States during the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. Baugh manufactured a variety of ground bone-based agricultural fertilizers that were tailored for a wide range of crops. They later expanded into the manufacture of animal charcoal, glue, and chemicals. Baugh’s corporate offices were located in the Delaware River Chemical Works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By the early twentieth century, Baugh products were widely available from a network of independently owned farm supply stores. In its yearly almanacs, they suggested the appropriate brand of Baugh fertilizer for specific crops. Baugh Chemical Company was purchased by Kerr-McGee Oil Industries, Incorporated in 1963. Kerr-McGee ceased to exist as an independent entity in 2006 when purchased by Houston, Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corporation.
A visitor to the Delaware River works reportedly wrote this description of the plant, "I have just inspected the Baugh Fertilizer Works on the Delaware River. I saw many large buildings, much machinery, and numerous workmen. There was business activity everywhere; but, more than anything else, I saw bones. The whole place suggested animal bones. There were bones in heaps, in sheds, on carts, on ships. There were bones whole and bones crushed; and bone ground, ready for shipment. I learned that the annual sales of Baugh's brands aggregate nearly 100,000 tons; which would be six thousand freight-car loads. I was told that these bones came from everywhere: from North America and from South America; from the West Indies and even from the East Indies. It was intimated that the present big bone heaps would soon be bigger, owing to incoming cargoes, but the statement made no impression on me." Baugh's Farmer's Almanac for 1903, page 14.
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Cite as
Baugh and Sons Company. Fertilizer Department. “Delaware River Chemical Works.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Arms & Mitchell, 1887. S659 .B38 1887. Science History Institute. Philadelphia. https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/di1hpre.
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