Giant Powder Company

The Giant Powder Company was an explosives manufacturing company which operated from the mid 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, located in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. The Giant Powder Company was the first company in the United States to produce dynamite under an exclusive license from Alfred Nobel.

The company was incorporated in August of 1867 by Julius Bandmann of San Francisco for the express purpose of manufacturing Nobel's newly-patented explosive in the United States. Bandmann immediately began construction of his factory in what was then the remote southern part of San Francisco, now the Glen Park neighborhood of the city. The facility was ready by early 1868, with production commencing in March.

On November 26, 1869, a terrific explosion destroyed the Giant dynamite factory, killing two and injuring nine people. A new facility was subsequently built at another site located in the western part of San Francisco, among the sand dunes and scrub that later became part of the Sunset District (in the vicinity of today's Kirkham, Ortega, 20th, and 32nd Avenues), but another accident destroyed that plant as well.

The public outcry that ensued from these two accidents prompted the Giant Powder Company to move across the Bay to a more remote site located between Fleming Point and the Cerrito de San Antonio (re-named Albany Hill in 1909), adjacent to the city of Berkeley. The railroad station for the facility was named "Nobel". Production was sucessful here for more than a decade before yet another accidental explosion occurred on July 9, 1892. The blast was widely felt, shattering windows for miles around, including those on the campus of the University of California. Numerous workers at the plant were killed. The facility was entirely destroyed.

The Giant Powder Company moved once again, this time to a remote site near Point Pinole, northwest of the city of San Pablo.

In 1915, the Giant Powder Company was acquired by the Atlas Powder Company. Atlas (and also the Hercules Powder Company), had been formed in 1912 as part of the settlement of the court-ordered breakup of the DuPont Corporation's explosives monopoly. The new management implemented more rigorous safety measures.

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