Editing Ethylene glycol (section)

=== Historical routes ===
According to most sources, French chemist [[Charles-Adolphe Wurtz]] (1817–1884) first prepared ethylene glycol in 1856.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Adolphe Wurtz | author-link = Charles-Adolphe Wurtz | date = 1856 | url = http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3000k/f203.image | title = Sur le glycol ou alcool diatomique |trans-title=On glycol or dibasic alcohol | journal = Comptes Rendus | volume = 43 | pages = 199–204}}</ref>  He first treated "ethylene iodide" ([[1,2-Diiodoethane]]) with silver acetate and then hydrolyzed the resultant "ethylene diacetate" with [[potassium hydroxide]]. Wurtz named his new compound "glycol" because it shared qualities with both [[ethyl alcohol]] (with one hydroxyl group) and [[glycerin]] (with three hydroxyl groups).<ref>Wurtz (1856), page 200: ''"… je propose de le nommer ''glycol'', parce qu'il se rapproche à la fois, par ses propriétés, de l'alcool proprement dit et de la glycérin, entre lesquels il se trouve placé."'' ( … I propose to call it ''glycol'' because, by its properties, it is simultaneously close to [ethyl] alcohol properly called and glycerin, between which it is placed.)</ref> In 1859, Wurtz prepared ethylene glycol via the [[Hydration reaction|hydration]] of [[ethylene oxide]].<ref>Ad. Wurtz (1859) [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3006f/f815.item.r=.zoom "Synthèse du glycol avec l'oxyde d'éthylène et l'eau"] (Synthesis of glycol from ethylene oxide and water), ''Comptes rendus'', '''49''' :  813–815.</ref> There appears to have been no commercial manufacture or application of ethylene glycol prior to [[World War I]], when it was synthesized from [[ethylene dichloride]] in Germany and used as a substitute for [[glycerol]] in the [[explosives]] industry.

In the United States, semicommercial production of ethylene glycol via [[ethylene chlorohydrin]] started in 1917. The first large-scale commercial glycol plant was erected in 1925 at [[South Charleston, West Virginia]], by Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Co. (now [[Union Carbide]] Corp.). By 1929, ethylene glycol was being used by almost all [[dynamite]] manufacturers. In 1937, Carbide started up the first plant based on Lefort's process for vapor-phase oxidation of ethylene to ethylene oxide. Carbide maintained a monopoly on the direct oxidation process until 1953 when the Scientific Design process was commercialized and offered for licensing.