Herbert A. Kern founds the Chicago Chemical Company to market sodium aluminate to municipalities and industrial plants for boiler feedwater treatment.
P. Wilson Evans founds the Aluminate Sales Corporation in Chicago, Illinois, selling sodium aluminate to railroads to condition the water in steam locomotives. The two companies merge in 1928, creating the National Aluminate Corporation.
The Chicago Chemical Company and Aluminate Sales Corporation merge, forming the National Aluminate Corporation. National Aluminate Corporation (Nalco) is incorporated in Illinois on May 1.
Nalco forms Visco in Sugar Land, Texas. The firm sells an additive for drilling mud, which is a mixture of clay and water used in drilling oil wells. This helps establish Nalco in the oil industry.
Nalco purchases Paige Jones Chemical Company of New York. With this transaction, Nalco acquires the equipment and chemical rights to supply water treatment chemicals in convenient and easy-to-feed ball briquette form. This results in a large increase in water treatment business.
