American firepower . . .

. . . sounds the clarion call of progress.

The call is steady and clear, and Humble responds.

The Baytown refinery, now one of the five largest in the world, produces more 100-octane aviation gasoline than any facility anywhere.

War changes everything. [spy pic goes here]

Contracted by the government in 1940, Humble builds the Baytown Ordnance Works, the first commercial synthetic toluene plant in the world. This plant produces almost half of the nation's entire supply of toluene for the war.

What is toluene?

It's the main ingredient of TNT, the major explosive used in the war.

It's used in bombs, shells, and torpedoes. Humble's toluene and aviation fuel prove indispensible to the Allied war effort.

After Japan cuts off the nation's supply of natural rubber in 1941, the Humble refinery, again under government contract, produces two types of synthetic rubber -- buna and Butyl -- using patents Standard Oil has acquired from agreements with I. G. Farbenindustrie of Germany before the war. But the rubber plants don't ramp up to full production until the end of the war.

The General Tire and Rubber Company opens a plant just north of the refinery, to make tires from Humble's butadiene.

After the war, Humble buys the toluene plant from the government for $7 million, and converts it to create aromatic solvents for paints, varnishes, and pesticides.

Though demand for petroleum products is expected to fall after the war, it does for only a few months.

The postwar boom is in full swing, and with a little bit of marketing help, the refinery runs at capacity.

By the 1960s, . . . [something about numbers of plants, a huge infrastructure, production of plastics]

Headline: TNT, aviation gasoline, and synthetic rubber for the war; afterwards, solvents, motor oil, and gasoline and gasoline and gasoline.

100-octane aviation gasoline, synthetic rubber, and toluene manufactured in Baytown prove indispensible to the Allied war effort. Asphalt for airplane runways . . . The Baytown Ordnance Works, the first commercial synthetic toluene plant in the world, and a model for future plants. Owned by the government but built and operated by Humble. Produces almost half of the nation's entire supply of toluene, the main ingredient of TNT -- the major explosive used in the war, used in bombs, shells, and torpedoes.