ABSTRACT
DuPont was one of the first U.S. companies to use the fledgling technology of moving pictures to advertise the proper ways to use its products. It paid for 37 copies of a silent film, Farming with Dynamite, in 1912, circulating and showing the movie around the country. In an era when moving pictures were still somewhat of a novelty, Farming with Dynamite and other DuPont productions were often all or part of the program in rural theaters, and DuPont films were also shown in noncommercial venues such as farmers’ institutes and agricultural colleges. Prints of Farming with Dynamite no longer exist, but a Scientific American review stated that the film demonstrated “the real value of high explosives to the farmer.” The motion picture and advertising campaigns were apparently successful: building a market where virtually none had existed before, DuPont sold American farmers around 17 million pounds of dynamite a year by 1920. The company continued to produce similar films, eventually with sound, into the age of television.
