Laflin & Rand Powder Company
gunpowder and early smokeless powder manufacturer
Laflin & Rand Powder Company was a gunpowder and early smokeless powder manufacturer notable for producing the smokeless powder used by United States Army infantry rifles from 1896 to 1908, which included the period of development of the M1903 Springfield rifle and .30-06 Springfield cartridge.
Formation
Matthew Laflin manufactured potassium nitrate for the Massachusetts militia during the American Revolutionary War and built a gunpowder mill in Southwick, Massachusetts, after the war. After Laflin's death in 1810, his grandchildren expanded the family business with two mills in New York and one in Wisconsin. These mills produced gunpowder for the Union forces through the American Civil War. Laflin Powder Company was incorporated in 1866 to consolidate operations to compete successfully for the reduced gunpowder demand after the war. Laflin Powder Company further consolidated gunpowder manufacturing around the Orange Mill Historic District near Newburgh, New York, by merging with the competing Smith & Rand Powder Company on 24 August 1869 to form the Laflin & Rand Powder Company of New York City, with Albert Rand as president.
History
In 1872 Laflin & Rand formed the United States Gunpowder Trade Association (popularly known as the powder trust) with DuPont, Hazard Powder Company, and three smaller gunpowder manufacturers. DuPont and Laflin & Rand jointly established the Repauno Chemical Company in 1880, the Hercules Powder Company in 1882, and the Eastern Dynamite Company in 1895. Ignition of gunpowder at the former Rand Company Fairchance, Pennsylvania, powder mill caused a series of seven explosions killing 19 people on 9 September 1905. Decreasing demand for the older powder caused Laflin & Rand to abandon the ruins rather than rebuild.
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This entry incorporates text from “Laflin & Rand Powder Company” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.