Olin Corp.

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The Olin Corporation (NYSE: OLN) is a major manufacturer of copper alloys (through subsidiary Olin Brass), ammunition (through the Winchester Ammunition), and chlorine and sodium hydroxide (Olin Chlor-Alkali Products). Based in Clayton, Missouri, it traces its history to two companies, both founded in 1892: Franklin W. Olin's Equitable Powder Company of East Alton, Illinois and the Mathieson Alkali Works of Saltville, Virginia. During its run in Saltville, the company was responsible for the loss of a great deal of methyl mercury into the soils and the North fork of the Holston River.

Olin Industries and Mathieson Chemical Company merged in 1954 to form the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation, which adopted the name Olin Corporation in 1969. Under the management of Franklin Olin's sons, John M. and Spencer Truman Olin, it diversified into a wide variety of businesses including forest and paper products, cellophane, bauxite mining, and even camping and skiing gear manufacturing and home construction. It sold off most of these businesses in the following decades, finally spinning off its specialty chemicals business on February 8, 1999 as Arch Chemicals, Inc.