Portal:Delaware/Selected article
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E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company was founded in July 1802 as a gun powder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont on Brandywine Creek, near Wilmington, Delaware, USA. DuPont is currently the world's second largest chemical company (behind BASF) in terms of market capitalization and fourth (behind BASF, Dow Chemical and Ineos) in revenue. It is also a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
In the twentieth century, DuPont led the polymer revolution by developing many highly successful materials such as Vespel, neoprene, nylon, Corian, Teflon, Mylar, Kevlar, M5 fiber, Nomex, Tyvek and Lycra. DuPont has also been significantly involved in the refrigerant industry, developing and producing the Freon (CFCs) series and later, more environmentally-friendly refrigerants. In the paint and pigment industry, it has created synthetic pigments and paints, such as ChromaFlair.
DuPont is often successful in popularizing the brands of its material products such that their trademark names become more commonly used than the generic or chemical word(s) for the material itself. One example is “neoprene”, which was intended originally to be a trademark but quickly came into common usage.
The effects of Hurricane Isabel in Delaware resulted in one of only twelve presidential disaster declarations for the state of Delaware. Hurricane Isabel formed from a tropical wave on September 6, 2003 in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. It moved northwestward, and within an environment of light wind shear and warm waters it steadily strengthened to reach peak winds of 165 mph (265 km/h) on September 11. After fluctuating in intensity for four days, Isabel gradually weakened and made landfall on the Outer Banks of North Carolina with winds of 105 mph (165 km/h) on September 18. It quickly weakened over land and became extratropical over Pennsylvania the next day. The storm's center remained to the south and west of Delaware, and was about 175 miles (280 km) from Delaware at its closest approach. At that time, Isabel was a strong tropical storm located in central Virginia.
The effects of the hurricane were compounded by flooding caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Henri days before. Moderate winds of up to 62 mph (100 km/h) downed numerous trees, tree limbs, and power lines across the state, leaving at least 15,300 without power. Numerous low-lying areas were flooded due to high surf, strong storm surge, or run-off from flooding further inland. The passage of Hurricane Isabel resulted in $40 million in damage (2003 USD, $44 million 2006 USD) and no casualties in the state.
The University of Delaware (UD) is the largest university in the U.S. state of Delaware. The main campus is located in Newark, with satellite campuses in Dover, Wilmington, Lewes and Georgetown. It is medium-sized — approximately 16,000 undergraduate and 3,000 graduate students. Although UD receives public funding for being a land-grant, sea-grant, space-grant and urban-grant state-supported research institution, it is also privately chartered. At present, the school's endowment is valued at about $1.2 billion US. The University of Delaware was called a "Public Ivy" in Greene's Guides published in 2001. In 2007, UD was ranked No. 15 nationally in Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine list of the 100 best public institutions of higher education. The University of Delaware was also ranked 15th best value for in state students and 10th best value for out of state students.
The school from which the university grew was founded in 1743, making it one of the oldest in the nation. However, the University of Delaware was not chartered as an institution of higher learning until 1833. Its original class of 10 students included George Read, Thomas McKean, and James Smith, all three of whom would go on to sign the Declaration of Independence.
The school has particularly substantial engineering, science, business, education, and agriculture programs, with world-class programs in business, chemical engineering, chemistry and biochemistry, drawing as it does from the historically strong presence of the nation's chemical and pharmaceutical industries in the state of Delaware. In 2006, UD's engineering program was ranked number 10 in the nation by The Princeton Review. It is one of only four schools in North America with a major in art conservation.
Hurricane Esther was the fifth named storm and fifth hurricane of the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season. A long-lived Category 4 Cape Verde-type hurricane, Esther spent its lifetime offshore, before moving up the East Coast of the United States. Esther made two distinct landfalls in New England, passing over Nantucket Island as a rapidly weakening Category 3 hurricane, then coming ashore in Maine while losing its tropical characteristics. These landfalls were separated by a rather unusual anticyclonic loop over the north Atlantic Ocean.
The hurricane caused $6 million (1961 USD, $37.4 million 2005 USD) in damage along the Eastern Seaboard, mostly on Long Island. Seven indirect deaths were also attributed to Esther after a Navy aircraft crashed in the Atlantic Ocean north of Bermuda, one of only a few documented occurrences of a tropical cyclone causing an airplane crash.
Esther was also one of the first storms targeted by a Navy experiment aimed at weakening hurricanes by seeding their eyewalls with silver iodide. Two flights were made into the storm, and the results of this expedition led to the establishment of the ill-fated Project Stormfury in 1962.
The Delaware Memorial Bridge is the world's longest twin suspension bridge, connecting New Castle, Delaware and Pennsville, New Jersey over the Delaware River. The toll bridge, which is operated by the Delaware River and Bay Authority, is approximately two and one-half miles long, with the main span measuring 2,150 feet. The bridge was designed with consulting help from famous engineer Othmar Ammann, whose other designs include the Walt Whitman Bridge, the Throgs Neck Bridge and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
Construction of the first span began on June 15, 1948, and it was dedicated on August 16, 1951 in honor of the Delaware and New Jersey soldiers who lost their lives in World War II. The American Institute of Steel Construction named it the most beautiful large steel span of its time. Construction of the second span began on April 15, 1964, and it was dedicated on September 12, 1968, in honor of the Delaware and New Jersey soldiers who lost their lives in the Korean and Vietnam wars.
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Tropical Storm Henri was a tropical storm that formed in the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season. The eighth storm of the season, Henri was one of six tropical cyclones to hit the United States in the year. Henri formed from a tropical wave in the Gulf of Mexico in early September, and crossed over Florida as a tropical depression. Its remnants later moved into the Mid-Atlantic before dissipating completely.
Henri caused little damage as a tropical cyclone. In Florida, it dropped heavy rainfall, though damage was limited to minor flooding damage. In Delaware and Pennsylvania, damage was greater, where heavy rainfall damaged hundreds of houses and businesses. The resulting floods in Delaware were described as a 1 in 500 year event. The total damage by Henri along its path amounted to $19.6 million (2003 USD, $21.5 million 2006 USD), but no deaths were reported.
