The Many Uses of Clorox Bleach

Sodium hypochlorite was introduced as industrial bleach by a French chemist named Claude Louis Berthollet. In 1913, five investors from Oakland founded The Electro-Alkaline Company to make industrial-strength bleach using water from salt ponds in the San Francisco Bay location. The following year, the company had registered the name Clorox and its diamond trademark. In 1916, the company developed less concentrated bleach for the household, and in 1928, the company had gone public. However, by 1957, Proctor & Gamble bought Clorox and that ended up resulting in antitrust litigation by the FTC for the next ten years. Eventually, Proctor & Gamble was ordered to let go of Clorox so that it became its own independent company again by 1969.