[glanceup]

Hi Chemists -

I'm a writer writing a novel that takes place in an industrial town in Pennsylvania in the 60s.

I'm trying to figure out a good name for a (fictional) chemical company, something akin to the (real name) American Cyanamid.  The name should suggest that the factory makes some nasty stuff.

Here's some names I've thought of but I don't know if they make sense.  What do you think? 

"National Chloro Phenyl Co."
"National Chlorophenyl Ketone Company"
"American Ketone Company"

Your informed suggestions greatly appreciated...

[Arkcon]

Those are all good, I think they're plausible for 1960's.  Or you can just go with a family name, lots of smaller companies founded in the 20's and 30's grew into the giants of today during the 40's and 50's-- thick of multinational companies like Roche, Bayer, etc.

[glanceup]

Any of that stuff nasty?      Smells, hazardous waste, environmental pollution?

[Rabn]

Being from Pennsylvania I feel as though I should chime in.  To make it historically accurate you should focus on the needs of the major industries in Pennsylvania during that time. The major industries then were steel, coal and farming.  Also, during that time frame, Western Electric was a major employer. W.E. and Bell Labs became AT&T.  THey were into telecom, as well as semiconductor manufacturing. In that day people would wash their hands in trichloromethane, use highly carcinogenic photoresist, benzene....heck, they were using chemicals whose long term effects were unknown, short term effects were unknown, and in some cases the properties were vaguely known. A lot of great technology came out of that company, the transistor, plasma t.v., the microwave oven...I used to work for Lucent Technologies/Bell Labs. Anyway, the name of the company should reflect the industry that it serves in some way. You have pesticides for farming(we all know about the crazy teratogens were using back then); coal...all kinds of poisons there; steel.  You could go with something like Custom Coal Distillates, nice acronym C.C.D. You could stay with the nationalist theme and go with American Benzene and Pesticides Corporation.  

[glanceup]

Very thoughtful, Rabn, thanks.  In keeping with the heavy industry theme, how about replacing "pesticides" with something more industrial? --
American Benzene and Ketone Co.?
American Benzene and Trichloromethane?

Something along those lines?

[Borek]

Custom Coal Distillates, nice acronym C.C.D.

This one is killing. Although I look from the distance, so I can be missing fine details

[Rabn]

Had another idea for a name: Central Alleghany Nitro-Coal Energy Research Corporation, C.A.N.C.E.R. Corp.....may be a little too blatant but it opens up character developement avenues(Alleghany refers to a river and a county in PA).  There is also the 3 Mile Island nuclear reactor which I forgot about, so you also have the scary Nuclear energy route you can go.