Theodore Swann (September 6, 1886 – February 5, 1955) was an American industrialist and early leader of the

chemical industry The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, it converts raw materials ( oil, natural gas, air, water, metals, and minerals) into more than 70,000 different products. T ...

. He was described by one historian as "a flamboyant Birmingham mogul and

New South New South, New South Democracy or New South Creed is a slogan in the history of the American South first used after the American Civil War. Reformers used it to call for a modernization of society and attitudes, to integrate more fully with the ...

industrialist." Hailing from east Tennessee, in his early working years, Swann was a power salesman for the

Alabama Power Company Alabama Power Company, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a company in the southern United States that provides electricity service to 1.4 million customers in the southern two-thirds of Alabama. It also operates appliance stores. It is ...

. He established the Federal Phosphorus Company to produce concentrated

phosphoric acid Phosphoric acid (orthophosphoric acid, monophosphoric acid or phosphoric(V) acid) is a colorless, odorless phosphorus-containing solid, and inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is commonly encountered as an 85% aqueous solutio ...

, mainly for use as a concentrated fertilizer, using a novel method to produce the acid from

phosphate rock Phosphorite, phosphate rock or rock phosphate is a non-detrital sedimentary rock that contains high amounts of phosphate minerals. The phosphate content of phosphorite (or grade of phosphate rock) varies greatly, from 4% to 20% phosphorus pentoxi ...

heat treatment Heat treating (or heat treatment) is a group of industrial, thermal and metalworking processes used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. The most common application is metallurgical. Heat treatments are al ...

in an electric furnace. He later established the Swann Chemical Company, focused on production of

PCBs Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer products, whose production was banned in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1979 and internationally by ...

for the emergent electrical industry. Swann Chemical Company operated a chemical manufacturing plant in

Anniston, Alabama Anniston is the county seat of Calhoun County in Alabama and is one of two urban centers/principal cities of and included in the Anniston-Oxford Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 23,106. Acc ...

where PCBs were first made on an industrial scale after development of a new process under Swann's leadership. In 1920, Swann gave his engineers the challenge of creating a process by which PCBs, up to that time very expensive and produced only in small quantities, could be produced in industrial quantities, and after much trial and error, they succeeded. The plant was later bought by Monsanto Industrial Chemicals Co. in 1935. The plant, just west of Anniston, had around 1,000 employees. One historian wrote that, "In many ways, the spirit of Swann Chemical became the corporate culture of Monsanto." Swann's house in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

, built from 1927 to 1930, was at the time the largest residence in the city and cost $600,000 to build. While Monsanto became the most successful agrochemical corporation in the world, Swann began to slide into poverty. He was forced to sell his castle in 1945 when he filed for bankruptcy. He nearly made a comeback by selling a new design for a furnace to process iron ore to the Cuban dictator

Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (; ; born Rubén Zaldívar, January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed military dictator ...

, but the dictator reneged after paying only a modest down payment. Theodore Swann died selling aluminum window frames on February 5, 1955.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swann, Theodore 1955 deaths American chemical industry businesspeople American industrialists Businesspeople from Birmingham, Alabama 1886 births 20th-century American businesspeople