ABSTRACT
Wars have a strong influence on technology. It is well known that war efforts can cause a speeding up of technological development. Often they push technology into new, hitherto unknown directions, which may appear to be dead ends as soon as the war is over. At first glance, the chemical activities of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group during World War I – as related to explosives and dyestuffs – are a good example. In 1906, before the 1907 merger of the two, both the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and Shell started research and development work on the production of so-called aromatic ‘intermediates’ from oil (that is, simple chemicals that can be converted into more complex substances, such as explosives and dyes). Three years later a production unit for nitrobenzene and nitrotoluene(s) came into operation. During World War I chemical research intensified and was extended to the conversion of these nitrocompounds into explosives and dyes. TNT factories were erected, and serious attempts were made to found a synthetic dyes business. After the war, however, work on these two groups of aromatic chemicals appeared to be of no commercial value, and in 1919 the board of directors decided to stop all research and production in these fields. Thus it may seem that these were episodes of no significance.
