Soybeans and Glidden: The Early Years Percy Julian’s research at
the Glidden Company in Chicago, where he began working in 1936,
renewed his interest in substances that come from plants.
Glidden hired Julian to find useful products that could be made
from soybeans. Years before Julian became a chemist, another
African American chemist named George Washington Carver had
learned how to make useful things from peanuts. Now Julian would
follow in Carver’s footsteps and create new products from
soybeans. Glidden’s Soya Division created a wide variety of soy-
based products under Julian’s direction. One of the first was
lecithin, a substance extracted from soybeans, which was used to
keep chocolate smooth and to preserve food. Another product was
a fire-retardant called Aer-o-foam, made from the protein found
in soybeans and widely used by the navy during World War II to
fight fires on ships at sea. Julian also found dozens of other
uses for soy oil and protein. Among the important uses were
coatings for paper and l