The Union Carbide Company grew from the work that began in 1891 by Major James Morehead and Canadian inventor Thomas Leopold Willson. Their determined but unsuccessful attempts to produce aluminum in an electric furnace led instead to two discoveries – a way to make calcium carbide and a method to produce acetylene gas from that carbide. FACT FOOD #57
The Union Carbide Company grew from the work that began in 1891 by Major James Morehead and Canadian inventor Thomas Leopold Willson. Their determined but unsuccessful attempts to produce aluminum in an electric furnace led instead to two discoveries – a way to make calcium carbide and a method to produce acetylene gas from that carbide. 