FMC GROWING ORBIT: THE STORY OF FMC CORPORATION

FMC Corporation is a diversified, global chemical company operating in three areas: agricultural products, specialty chemicals, and industrial chemicals. Growing orbit the story of fmc corporation hardback dj some called it paradise nestled between two mountain ranges on the southern rim of the San Francisco bay the flat plains of the Santa Clara valley contained some of the most fertile soil in the world by the late 19th century the valley was the center of California becoming horticultural industry prunes were the principal crop peach pear and apricot orchards also flourished as did nut trees such as almonds and walnuts but paradise was flawed diseased fruit trees from china brought to the valley what becomes know as the San José scale which ravaged the valley's lush orchards growers were desperate to treat infected orchards but laced an effective mechanism to spray the trees among the new land owners in the valley was a man named john bean who had come west from Michigan in 1883 frustrated by existing pumps he set out to develop a high pressure pump that would produce a continuous spray after patenting his invention in 1884 and with his neighbors clamoring for the device, the retired Yankee farmer inventor found himself back in business..The rest is fmc history