Abstract
DDT is a white crystalline substance made by reacting monochlorobenzene and chloral in the presence of sulphuric acid. Its amazing insect-killing power was dis-covered by chemists in the Swiss firm of J. R. Geigy in 1939. This firm had an established reputation for synthetic dyestuffs, but before the discovery of DDT was relatively unknown for insecticides. For about twenty years Geigy chemists had searched for a moth-proofing agent, which would be odourless, colourless, non-toxic to humans and resistant to deterioration by light. They finally marketed such a material under the name ‘Mitin FF’.
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References
West, T. F., Hardy, J. Eliot, and Ford, J. H., Chemical Control of Insects, 1951.
‘Patent Status of DDT’, Chemical and Engineering News, Sept. 10, 1945.
Froehlicher, Victor, ‘The Story of DDT’, Soap and Sanitary Chemicals, July 1944.
Frear, Donald E. H., Chemistry of Insecticides, Fungicides and Herbicides, 2nd ed., 1948.
West, T. F., and Campbell, G. A., ‘The Story of DDT and its Role in Anti-Pest Measures’, Chemistry and Industry, May 19, 1945.
‘DDT’, Society of Dyers and Colourists Journal, Dec. 1945.
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© 1969 John Jewkes, David Sawers and Richard Stillerman
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Jewkes, J., Sawers, D., Stillerman, R. (1969). DDT. In: The Sources of Invention. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-00015-9_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-00015-9_21
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