GE Betz - Early History

Early History

William H. Betz and L. Drew Betz founded their modest business in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1925 to produce a water purification compound. Seven decades later Betz Laboratories reaped the benefits of a growing movement in favor of pollution control. With the enactment of the 1971 Clean Water Act and increased government incentives to place the burden of regulation on the industries themselves, the company's customer base grew to include the accounts of major oil refineries and steel mills.

Betz's first product, K-Gel, a colloidal substance used in the purification of boiler water, remained on the manufacturer's list for fifty years. After just one year of sales, this product made the company approximately $30,000. Despite the difficulties of the Depression, Betz fared well in the 1930s. With sales surpassing $100,000 the company announced the addition of Collogel to its product line. This chemical compound dispersed sodium alginate in domestic water systems. Two years later a third product line, named Adjunct for its use in connection with K-Gel, entered the market. Although the company experienced two years of decreased sales, by 1936 a consulting service had been started that would eventually grow large enough to warrant a separate division.

As the company expanded into new areas, its older operations benefited from a more integrated production. A new processing plant on the coast of Maine exploited natural resources available in the ocean floor. Using algin and alginic acid extracted from ocean kelp, this plant successfully processed ingredients later used in the production of K-Gel. Although initially successful, the plant was subsequently sold when a 1945 hurricane destroyed the kelp beds. Interestingly, at this point in Betz' history, the company's services, now widely recognized as a reputable leader, were solicited in order to fulfill an unusual request. To ensure the comfort of their unprecedented visit to the White House in 1939, George VI and Elizabeth, the reigning monarchs of the United Kingdom, were given tea brewed with synthetic London water. Betz was given the honor of synthesizing and bottling this water.

In 1940, John Drew Betz, the son and grandson of the company founders, officially joined the partnership. The young executive's tenure at Betz began while still in high school; the boy worked as a sample bottle washer in the summer of 1932. Eight years later the company embraced its third generation of family management, enabling this newest partner to participate in the manufacturing of Betz's first patented product. Remosil, a chemical compound of magnesium oxide used in the treatment of water containing silica, received U.S. patent approval in January 1943.

By the end of the decade Betz entered its first foreign market through a Canadian partnership. During this period of time research was also underway to combat pitting and tuberculation in industrial cooling water systems. This research ultimately produced a line of patented products under the name Dianodic, and due to their innovative uses established Betz's position as an industry leader. One such product, a zinc-Dianodic, so effectively protected systems against corrosion that it remained a preferred product for years. In addition to these achievements sales surpassed, for the first time, the $2 million mark.

Water treatment chemicals were not the sole representatives of Betz's product line. In entering the paper processing industry the company developed biocides and other products useful to the manufacture of paper. In 1957 the original partnership established over 30 years earlier was transformed into a corporation and renamed Betz Laboratories, Inc. Two years later, while serving as chairman of the board, William H. Betz died. L. Drew Betz then stepped up to the position of chairman and John Drew assumed the title of president. The company issued its first common stock in 1965 signaling the transition from private to public ownership.