History
The Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company opened in 1887 with the production of kraft paper, also known as Kraft, and blotting paper.
In 1921, a team of chemists performing research for General Motors discovered tetraethyllead (TEL) had antiknock properties as a gasoline additive. As a result, the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation in Richmond, Virginia began production of tetraethyllead in 1937. TEL remained the primary product of the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation through the next four decades. When the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation expanded its product line (particularly to include MMT), its name was changed to the Ethyl Corporation.
The Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company borrowed $200 million in 1962 and purchased Ethyl Corporation, a company more than thirteen times its size.
Throughout the next few decades, The Ethyl Corporation, under the direction of the Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company, further expanded their product line to include bromine (in 1969 in Magnolia, Arkansas), lubricant additives (in 1975), and aluminum alkyls (in 1976 in Feluy, Belgium). Further expansion of The Ethyl Corporation included the purchases of Dow Chemical's bromine division, Russ Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Potasse et Produits Chimiques (PPC).
In 1994, Ethyl spun off its chemical businesses to create an independent, publicly traded company named Albemarle Corporation.
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