Portrait of Herbert Henry Dow

Birthday profile

Herbert Henry Dow

Herbert Henry Dow, Canadian-American businessman, founded the Dow Chemical Company (died 1930)

Born
February 26, 1866
Died
October 15, 1930
Zodiac sign
Pisces
Birth year
1866

About Herbert Henry Dow

Herbert Henry Dow (February 26, 1866 – October 15, 1930) was an American chemical industrialist who founded the American multinational conglomerate Dow Chemical. A graduate of the Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland, Ohio, he was a prolific inventor of chemical processes, compounds, and products, notably bromine extraction from brine water, and was a successful businessman. == Biography == === Early years === Herbert Henry Dow was born in 1866 in Belleville, Ontario, the eldest child of Americans Joseph Henry Dow, an inventor and mechanical engineer, and his wife, Sarah Bunnell, who were from Derby, Connecticut. When the infant boy was six weeks old, the family returned to their hometown. They moved again in 1878, this time to Cleveland to follow Joseph's job with the Derby Shovel Manufacturing Company. After graduating from high school in 1884, Dow enrolled in the Case School of Applied Science (now known as Case Western Reserve University). While at Case, he became a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He began specialized research into the chemical composition of brines in Ohio and nearby areas. He discovered that brine samples from Canton, Ohio and Midland, Michigan were very rich in bromine, which at the time was a primary ingredient in medicines and was widely used in the fledgeling photographic industry. Following his graduation from Case in 1888, Dow worked for a year as a chemistry professor at Huron Street Hospital College in Cleveland, while continuing his research into the extraction of chemicals from brine.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Herbert Henry Dow timeline

  1. Herbert Henry Dow (February 26, 1866 – October 15, 1930) was an American chemical industrialist who founded the American multinational conglomerate Dow Chemical.
  2. Dow continued his work extracting bromine, and by early 1891 he had invented the Dow process, a method of bromine extraction using electrolysis to oxidize bromide to bromine.

The world when Herbert Henry Dow was born

Herbert Henry Dow was born in 1866. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1866

  • Best-selling bookCrime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineReconstruction era begins in the South
  • Technology milestoneTransatlantic telegraph cable successfully laid
  • World population~1.46B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderAndrew Johnson
  • U.S. population34.0M

1866 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Herbert Henry Dow's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18662026
Population34.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.