Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) was developed as the first of the modern synthetic insecticides in the 1940s. It was initially used with great effect to combat malaria, typhus, and the other insect-borne human diseases among both military and civilian populations.
DDT was first synthesized in 1874 by the Austrian chemist Othmar Zeidler. DDT's insecticidal action was discovered by the Swiss chemist Paul Hermann Müller in 1939. DDT was used in the second half of World War II to limit the spread of the insect-borne diseases malaria and typhus among civilians and troops.
DDT, prepared by the reaction of chloral with chlorobenzene in the presence of sulfuric acid, was first made in 1874. Its insecticidal properties were discovered in 1939 by a Swiss chemist, Paul Hermann Müller.
By the fall of 1945 millions of people had come in direct contact with DDT—in Naples, North Africa, the Pacific, even throughout the southeastern United States where the chemical was sprayed in homes in an attempt to rout the last vestiges of malaria. No one displayed ill effects.
DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) was developed as the first of the modern synthetic insecticides in the 1940s. It was initially used with great effect to combat malaria, typhus, and the other insect-borne human diseases among both military and civilian populations.
DDT was first synthesized in 1874, however, it wasn’t until 1939 that scientist Paul Müller discovered its effectiveness as an insecticide. Müller was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1948 for his...
DDT was one of the first chemicals in widespread use as a pesticide. Following World War II, it was promoted as a wonder-chemical, the simple solution to pest problems large and small. Today, nearly 40 years after DDT was banned in the U.S., we continue to live with its long-lasting effects:
DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) was developed as the first of the modern synthetic insecticides in the 1940s. It was initially used with great effect to combat malaria, typhus, and the other insect-borne human diseases among both military and civilian populations.
In 1939, Müller noticed a 1934 publication by two British chemists at Oxford University, Frederick Chattaway and Roland Muir. They described the preparation of diphenyl-trichloro-ethane by condensing benzene with chloral hydrate, using concentrated sulfuric acid as a dehydrating agent.
World War II was raging in Europe when an employee of the Swiss chemical giant J.R. Geigy discovered that dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, an obscure chemical first synthesized decades earlier,...