ELETTROCHIMICA D'ECCELLENZA IN ABRUZZO LE PRODUZIONI BELLICHE SPECIALI DEL POLO DI BUSSI, 1928-1943.

The paper analyzes the activity related to the production of weapons in the period between the end of the twenties and the early forties, in the electrochemical site of Bussi in Abruzzo. The Site was a strategic plant for the Italian government which productions were subjected to the strictest military secret. The plant was producing chemical weapons (phosgene and mustard gas) and super explosives such as the T4, the most powerful explosive in the world that together with the pentrite, always produced on site, were considered essential products for the defense of the Italian country. In particular, the T4 was produced for the first time in the plant with a process that was using only domestic raw materials, so an independent process that set Italy free from German imports. Additional military productions of interest of the Abruzzo's plant were the chlorate-based explosives for which it was initiated a completely new industrial cycle that boosted even further the capacities of Montecatini. Finally, in the paper we report the production of antiknock compound for fuels and the complex relationship between the Italian State (site of Bussi) the General Motor Chemical Company and the Du Pont de Nemours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]