Air Products was founded by the late Leonard P. Pool in 1940 in Detroit, Michigan, on the strength of a simple, but then revolutionary, idea: the "on-site" concept of producing and selling industrial gases, primarily oxygen. At the time, most oxygen was sold as a highly compressed gas in cylinders that weighed five times more than the gas product. Air Products proposed building oxygen gas generating facilities adjacent to large-volume gas users, thereby reducing distribution costs. The concept of piping the gas directly from the generator to the point of use proved sound and technically solvable.
Today:
- Our hydrogen sends astronauts into space . . .
- Our oxygen helps patients breathe easier . . .
- Our helium fills half of the world's MRIs . . .
- Our performance chemicals are friendly to the environment . . .
- Our electronic specialty gases help make cell phones, PDAs, PCs, and LEDs.
