We Called it MAG-nificent: Dow Chemical and Magnesium, 1916-1998 by E. N. Brandt (review)

110 The Michigan Historical Review E. N. Brandt. We Called it MAG-nificent: Dow Chemical and Magnesium, 1916-1998. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2013. Pp. 160. Bibliography. Notes. Index. Photographs. Cloth, $24.95. In this small volume, retired Director of Public Relations Ned Brandt describes Dow’s 72-year odyssey with magnesium metal. Brandt tells this story as an industrial adventure, drawing heavily on oral history interviews with engineers and managers. Faced with innumerable obstacles, including difficult technology, uncertain markets, and a less than optimal plant site, Dow employees remained dedicated to the metal they affectionately referred to as “mag.” The company’s Gulf Coast plant site was not only a salt marsh full of poisonous snakes and clouds of mosquitoes, it was also in the path of an occasional hurricane. A magnesium plant was a dangerous and unpleasant place to work. Plant workers had to contend with high temperatures, made worse by the Gulf Coast heat and humidity. The worst job was cleaning out the sludge from the electrolytic cells; that sludge became part of Mag Mountain, the highest point in the county. During a 1972 strike, management ran the plant but had difficulty performing this vital task. To avoid future labor problems, the company hired non-union, contract workers to do this job. However, Dow worked hard to promote safety, and units that met safety goals were rewarded with popular barbecues. Made by the electrolysis of the salts from Michigan brines, magnesium was a natural complement to the company’s major products: bromine and chlorine. The use of magnesium in flares and tracer bullets in World War I led Dow to begin production in 1916. Magnesium metal is similar to aluminum but is only two-thirds as dense. Dow hoped that the light weight metal would find applications in aircraft. However, in 1929, Dow’s magnesium output was still only 0.5% of Alcoa’s aluminum production. Nevertheless, Dow’s faith in the future of magnesium led to the construction of the Gulf Coast plant in Freeport, Texas that began production in January 1941. This timing was auspicious since the war in Europe had led to an increased demand for magnesium for aircraft parts and incendiary bombs. During the war, America expanded its magnesium production a hundredfold to nearly 600 million pounds per year; Dow owned one-third of this capacity. In the post-war era, magnesium never experienced the healthy growth and profitability of the company’s chemical products. In the 1990s, China began to sell magnesium at prices that Dow could not match, and in 1998 the company exited the business. Book Reviews 111 Overall, Brandt portrays a dedicated management and workforce that continuously improved the process and product; however, that was not enough to make magnesium a major contributor to the bottom line. Primarily a producer of commodity chemicals, Dow did not make a major effort to develop uses and markets for magnesium. In the 1990s, over half of the magnesium production was consumed in one application as a strengthening agent in aluminum for beverage cans. Magnesium never emerged from the shadow of aluminum. John K. Smith Lehigh University Joe T. Darden and Richard Thomas. Detroit: Race Riots, Racial Conflicts, and Efforts to Bridge the Racial Divide. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2013. Pp. 436. Photographs. Notes. References. Index. Paper, $29.95. In Detroit: Race Riots, Racial Conflicts, and Efforts to Bridge the Racial Divide, Joe Darden and Richard Thomas have written an important and compelling book that uses a comparative historical analysis to examine the impact of the 1967 race riots on this once great American city. Detroit, home to the Big 3 automakers and Motown Records, symbolized the might of the US economy, yet it became the largest US city to file for bankruptcy in 2013. While the latter distinction is not included in the almost half century of urban history covered in the book, the authors use the ’67 riots as the point of demarcation as they meticulously chronicle the divergent trajectories of the city and its large African American population in comparison to the metropolitan region’s overwhelmingly white suburban population, much of which fled the city...