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Vigo Ordnance Plant
The Vigo Ordnance Plant, also known as the Vigo Chemical Plant or simply Vigo Plant, was a United States Army facility built in 1942 to produce conventional weapons. In 1944 it was converted to produce biological agents for the U.S. bio-weapons program. Although the plant never actually produced bio-weapons before the end of World War II, it did produce 8000 pounds of an anthrax simulant. After the war, the plant was transferred to Pfizer, who operated it until the plants closure in 2008. Location The Vigo Ordnance Plant was located on of a more than government-owned tract and cost $21 million to build (the equivalent of $366 million in 2023). The facility was constructed in the Honey Creek Township in Vigo County, Indiana. The plant was located about six miles (10 km) south of Terre Haute. The area surrounding the plant was flat, covered with cornfields and dotted by hog farms. The site of the former Vigo Plant is south of Interstate 70 near Highway 41 and Indiana State ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terre Haute Ordnance Depot
The Terre Haute Ordnance Depot was a World War II-era U.S. supply depot located in Terre Haute, Indiana. History Construction on the Terre Haute Ordnance Depot began on June 4, 1942. It was one of two ordnance depots activated in Vigo County, Indiana that year. The depot was completed on December 4, 1942 at a cost of $5.6 million. Terre Haute Ordnance Depot was located on east of Fruitridge Avenue in Terre Haute, Indiana.McCormick, Mike. ''Terre Haute: Queen City of the Wabash'',Google Books, Arcadia Publishing, 2005, pp. 129-130, (). Mission The Terre Haute Ordnance Depot was mostly a warehouse complex engaged in various activities. The work at Terre Haute included storing spare parts, repairing transport vehicles, and shipping supplies to other military installations. See also *Vigo Ordnance Plant The Vigo Ordnance Plant, also known as the Vigo Chemical Plant or simply Vigo Plant, was a United States Army facility built in 1942 to produce conventional weapons. In 1944 it was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meselson, Matthew
Matthew Stanley Meselson (born May 24, 1930) is a geneticist and molecular biologist currently at Harvard University, known for his demonstration, with Franklin Stahl, of semi-conservative DNA replication. After completing his Ph.D. under Linus Pauling at the California Institute of Technology, Meselson became a Professor at Harvard University in 1960, where he has remained today as Professor of the Natural Sciences. In the famous Meselson–Stahl experiment of 1958 he and Frank Stahl demonstrated through nitrogen isotope labeling that DNA is replicated semi-conservatively. In addition, Meselson, François Jacob, and Sydney Brenner discovered the existence of messenger RNA in 1961. Meselson has investigated DNA repair in cells and how cells recognize and destroy foreign DNA, and, with Werner Arber, was responsible for the discovery of restriction enzymes. Since 1963 he has been interested in chemical and biological defense and arms control, has served as a consultant on this s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guillemin, Jeanne
Jeanne Harley Guillemin (March 6, 1943 - November 15, 2019) was an American medical anthropologist and author, who for 25 years taught at Boston College as a professor of Sociology and for over ten years was a senior fellow in the Security Studies Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was an authority on biological weapons and published four books on the topic. Biography Born (March 6, 1943) Jean Elizabeth Garrigan in Brooklyn, New York City, she was raised in Rutherford, New Jersey and received a bachelor's degree (1968) in social psychology from Harvard University. In 1973, she completed a PhD in sociology and anthropology at Brandeis University. She taught at Boston College from 1972 until 2005. While at Boston College, Guillemin did extensive research on hospital technology and medical ethics, receiving fellowships to work on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee staff and at the Hastings Center for the Study of Ethics. She was also co-head of the National Libra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tributyl Phosphate
Tributyl phosphate, known commonly as TBP, is an organophosphorus compound with the chemical formula (CH3CH2CH2CH2O)3PO. This colourless, odorless liquid finds some applications as an extractant and a plasticizer. It is an ester of phosphoric acid with ''n''-butanol. Production Tributyl phosphate is manufactured by reaction of phosphoryl chloride with ''n''-butanol. : POCl3 + 3 C4H9OH → PO(OC4H9)3 + 3 HCl Production is estimated at 3,000–5,000 tonnes worldwide. Use TBP is a solvent and plasticizer for cellulose esters such as nitrocellulose and cellulose acetate, similarly to tricresyl phosphate. It is also used as a flame retardant for cellulose fabrics such as cotton. It forms stable hydrophobic complexes with some metals; these complexes are soluble in organic solvents as well as supercritical CO2. The major uses of TBP in industry are as a component of aircraft hydraulic fluid, brake fluid, and as a solvent for extraction and purification of rare-earth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sulfuric Acid
Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen, and hydrogen, with the molecular formula . It is a colorless, odorless, and Viscosity, viscous liquid that is Miscibility, miscible with water. Pure sulfuric acid does not occur naturally due to its Dehydration reaction, strong affinity to water vapor; it is Hygroscopy, hygroscopic and readily absorbs water vapor from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. Concentrated sulfuric acid is a strong oxidant with powerful dehydrating properties, making it highly corrosive towards other materials, from rocks to metals. Phosphorus pentoxide is a notable exception in that it is not dehydrated by sulfuric acid but, to the contrary, dehydrates sulfuric acid to sulfur trioxide. Upon addition of sulfuric acid to water, a considerable amount of heat is releas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corrosive Substance
Corrosion is a natural process that converts a refined metal into a more chemically stable oxide. It is the gradual deterioration of materials (usually a metal) by chemical or electrochemical reaction with their environment. Corrosion engineering is the field dedicated to controlling and preventing corrosion. In the most common use of the word, this means electrochemical oxidation of metal in reaction with an oxidant such as oxygen, hydrogen, or hydroxide. Rusting, the formation of red-orange iron oxides, is a well-known example of electrochemical corrosion. This type of corrosion typically produces oxides or salts of the original metal and results in a distinctive coloration. Corrosion can also occur in materials other than metals, such as ceramics or polymers, although in this context, the term "degradation" is more common. Corrosion degrades the useful properties of materials and structures including mechanical strength, appearance, and permeability to liquids and ga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bacillus Globigii
''Bacillus'', from Latin "bacillus", meaning "little staff, wand", is a genus of Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria, a member of the phylum ''Bacillota'', with 266 named species. The term is also used to describe the shape (rod) of other so-shaped bacteria; and the plural ''Bacilli'' is the name of the class of bacteria to which this genus belongs. ''Bacillus'' species can be either obligate aerobes which are dependent on oxygen, or facultative anaerobes which can survive in the absence of oxygen. Cultured ''Bacillus'' species test positive for the enzyme catalase if oxygen has been used or is present. ''Bacillus'' can reduce themselves to oval endospores and can remain in this dormant state for years. The endospore of one species from Morocco is reported to have survived being heated to 420 °C. Endospore formation is usually triggered by a lack of nutrients: the bacterium divides within its cell wall, and one side then engulfs the other. They are not true spores (i.e., ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ira Baldwin
Ira Lawrence Baldwin (August 20, 1895 – August 9, 1999) was the founder and director emeritus of the Wisconsin Academy Foundation. He began teaching bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin in 1927 and a few years later moved into what became a career in administration. He held positions as chair of the Department of Bacteriology, dean of the Graduate School, dean and director of the College of Agriculture, university vice president for academic affairs, and special assistant to the president. He was also involved in programs for agricultural development both in the United States and abroad. Ira Baldwin wrote a hostile review of Rachel Carson's ''Silent Spring'', titled "Chemicals and Pests," in the journal ''Science''. Biography Early life and education Ira Baldwin was born in 1895 on a 40-acre farm in Indiana. In his youth, he earned money to attend college by selling ducks and husking corn. He served state-side as a second lieutenant in an artillery unit. Baldwin attend ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regis, Ed
Edward Regis, Jr (born 1944) — known as Ed Regis — is an American philosopher, educator and author. He specializes in books and articles about science, philosophy and intelligence. His topics have included nanotechnology, transhumanism and biological warfare. His articles have appeared in several scientific magazines, including ''Scientific American'', ''Harper's Magazine'', ''Wired'', ''Discover'', ''The New York Times'', ''Journal of Philosophy'', ''Ethics'' and the ''American Philosophical Quarterly''. Personal Regis was born in 1944. He received a Ph.D in Philosophy from New York University. Regis and his wife live in the mountains near Camp David, in Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east .... Works Editor * * Original works * * * * * * * * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
M33 Cluster Bomb
The M33 cluster bomb, also known as the (M33) Brucella cluster bomb, was a U.S. biological cluster bomb developed in the early 1950s and deployed in 1952. It was the first standardized biological weapon in the U.S. arsenal. History The U.S. Army Chemical Corps selected ''Brucella suis'' as its first mass-produced biological agent in 1949. Tests at Dugway Proving Ground followed in 1950 and 1951. These tests paved the way for the first mass-produced biological weapon in the U.S. arsenal in 1952.Croddy, Eric and Wirtz, James J. ''Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Encyclopedia of Worldwide Policy, Technology, and History'',Google Books, ABC-CLIO, 2005, p. 75, (), accessed November 13, 2008. Specifications The M33 cluster bomb was a biological munition that initially carried the biological agent ''Brucella suis''. The M33 held 108 M114 anti-personnel bombs; each M114 held about 320 milliliters of ''B. suis'' culture.Smart, Jeffery K. Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cluster Bomb
A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehicles. Other cluster munitions are designed to destroy runways or electric power transmission lines. Because cluster bombs release many small bomblets over a wide area, they pose risks to civilians both during attacks and afterwards. Unexploded ordnance, Unexploded bomblets can kill or maim civilians and unintended targets long after a conflict has ended, and are costly to locate and remove. This failure rate ranges from 2 percent to over 40 percent. Cluster munitions are prohibited for those nations that ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions, adopted in Dublin, Ireland, in May 2008. The Convention entered into force and became binding international law upon ratifying states on 1 August 2010, six months after being ratified by 30 st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
M114 Bomb
The M114 bomb was a four-pound U.S. anti-personnel bomb and biological cluster bomb sub-munition. The M114 was used in the M33 cluster bomb. History The M114 was a sub-munition for the M33 cluster bomb, as such, it was the first standardized U.S. biological weapon in 1952.Croddy, Eric and Wirtz, James J. ''Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Encyclopedia of Worldwide Policy, Technology, and History'',Google Books, ABC-CLIO, 2005, p. 75, (), accessed November 13, 2008. The M114 was an improved version of a British World War II-era bomblet that was designed to disperse anthrax.Kirby, Reid.The CB Battlefield Legacy: Understanding the Potential Problem of Clustered CB Weapons", '' Army Chemical Review'', pp. 25-29, July–December 2006, accessed November 12, 2008. Specifications The M114 was similar to a pipe bomb: it had a tube with a diameter of . 108 M114s were clustered into the M33 cluster bomb;Smart, Jeffery K. Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare'': Chapter 2 - Hist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
