Fermented Dog Manure?

While working at the Stuttgart Gas Works in Germany in 1904, a 29-year-old chemist named Otto Röhm noticed that the smell of the plant's waste product, called gas water, was similar to the stench from the nearby leather tannery. In those days, tanners used fermented dog manure to soften, or bate, their hides in preparation for tanning.

Not only was this malodorous and unsanitary, it was an unpredictable process that did not produce consistent results. Röhm began to wonder if he could develop a new leather bate from the components of gas water. With the help of a local tanner, he began to experiment with a new bating solution made of gas water and salts with promising results.

Röhm contacted his friend and businessman Otto Haas who had earlier immigrated to the United States, and told him about the project. Haas had been looking for just such a venture and immediately signed on. By the time he returned to Germany, however, Röhm had learned that his bate was not working reliably. Together, the two men went back to the lab to rethink the process and run further experiments.

Oropon, the First Man-Made Bate

Thanks to earlier studies on enzymes by a Nobel laureate, the scientific insight of Rohm, and a lot of long hours, the two Ottos eventually developed a new bate. This bate was made from the enzymes derived from animal pancreases, which Röhm had shown to be highly effective in softening leather.

Patented in 1907, Oropon soon became the pioneer of modern bating agents. This first man-made bate was more sanitary, less odorous, and produced more consistent results than the "tried and true" manure method.

“O stands for Oropon,
The Universal Bate,
The exceptional tanner who does without
Is simply Out of Date.”

– The Oropon newsletter, April 1920

A Company Is Born

With the initial success of Oropon under their belts, Röhm and Haas decided to formalize their business agreement, and in 1907 the company bearing their names was off and running. They opened their first manufacturing plant in Esslingen, just outside of Stuttgart.

Haas, the businessman, focused his efforts on marketing Oropon and growing the business. With his sales know-how, much of which he picked up while working in the German dyestuffs industry, he introduced Oropon to tanners throughout Germany and then in England and France.

Röhm, the scientist, concentrated on manufacturing and research, perfecting the product and creating variations to suit specific customers' needs. This collaborative arrangement, capitalizing on their respective strengths, would be the key to their success for many years.

The fledgling company became so successful in Europe that, in 1909, Haas was able to return to the United States, as he had always planned, to set up an American branch. He chose Philadelphia, and in no time he was introducing himself and Oropon to local tanners. On September 1, 1909, the American branch of the Rohm and Haas Company opened for business.

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