Éleuthère Irénée du Pont

Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (24 June 1771 – 31 October 1834) was a French-American chemist and industrialist. He founded the gunpowder manufacturer E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. His descendants, the du Pont family, have been among the wealthiest and most influential American families since the 1800s, producing generations of prominent business leaders, politicians, and philanthropists.

Born in Paris on 24 June 1771, he was the son of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, a political economist granted noble status by King Louis XVI in 1784, and Nicole-Charlotte Marie-Louise le Dée de Rencourt. Raised on the family estate "Bois des Fossés" near Égreville, du Pont was an eager student, especially drawn to explosives. He was a Huguenot. In autumn 1785, he entered the Collège de France in Paris. Two years later, he became a student of the noted chemist Antoine Lavoisier, a family friend, at the Régie des poudres, the government agency overseeing gunpowder production. From Lavoisier, he learned advanced techniques in nitrate extraction and manufacture. After a short apprenticeship, he worked at a government powder works in Essonne but left when Lavoisier departed.

In 1791, du Pont helped his father run a small Paris publishing house that printed a republican newspaper supporting governmental reforms. He served in the pro-Revolution national guard and backed the Jacobins. However, on 20 August 1792, both he and his father helped protect Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette during the storming of the Tuileries Palace. His father’s refusal to support the guillotining of Louis XVI angered fellow revolutionaries, and their moderate politics became dangerous. His father was arrested in 1794, spared execution only by the end of the Reign of Terror. In September 1797, du Pont and his father spent a night in La Force prison while their home and presses were ransacked. Losing hope in France, his father planned to move the family to America and create a model community of French émigrés. On 2 October 1799, they sold the publishing house and sailed for the United States, reaching Rhode Island on 1 January 1800. They settled in a home his father had secured in Bergen Point, New Jersey. They opened an office in New York City to decide on a new business, but du Pont was largely left out of those plans. He saw, however, that his apprenticeship with Lavoisier could offer opportunities.

Du Pont had not intended to return to gunpowder making in America, but he brought expertise in chemistry and powder production at a time when American-made gunpowder was very poor. According to Delaware legend, he decided to enter the business after a hunting trip with Major Louis de Tousard, a former French artillery officer working for the U.S. Army to procure gunpowder. When du Pont’s gun misfired while shooting a bird, he reflected on his training with Lavoisier. He noted the poor quality and high price of the American powder they were using. At his request, Tousard arranged a tour of an American powder plant. Du Pont saw that the saltpeter was adequate but the refining process was inefficient compared to French methods. He believed he could use his experience to produce better gunpowder and improve the industry. With his father’s approval, he raised capital for the first powder mills and returned to France in early 1801 to secure financing and equipment.

The company, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, was formally established on 21 April 1801, named for du Pont’s ingenuity. It was capitalized at $36,000, divided into 18 shares of $2,000 each. He bought a site on Brandywine Creek for $6,740, which included small buildings, a dam, and the foundations of a cotton-spinning mill destroyed by fire. The first gunpowder was produced in April 1804.

In 1807, du Pont was elected to the American Philosophical Society in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia.

He married Sophie Dalmas in 1791; they had eight children.

Du Pont died on 31 October 1834 in Philadelphia at age 63. The cause of death was not clearly determined, with conflicting reports of either cholera or a heart attack. He was buried in the Du Pont de Nemours Cemetery on the family property. His arrival in the United States on 1 January 1800 is still celebrated annually by his descendants.