B&J History

In 1959, Orel Burdick, the owner of an analytical laboratory which served the local Muskegon, Michigan foundry industry, formed a partnership with Dr. Bill Jackson, a synthetic organic chemist from The Upjohn Company in Kalamazoo. The entrepreneurial enterprise known as Burdick & Jackson Laboratories began by manufacturing lab instruments, analytical reagents and fine organic chemicals.

Burdick & Jackson's First High Purity Solvent
An early B&J product was the Burd Watcher, an apparatus containing a combination of clocks, relay switches and sensors to monitor and control laboratory equipment. Using devices such as temperature sensors, the Burd Watcher could be set to trigger switches or alarms. When a customer placed an unusually large order for Burd Watchers in 1962, Dr. Jackson asked why so many devices were needed. The customer explained they were beginning a project requiring the distillation of solvents for pesticide residue analysis. At that time, no high purity solvent for this purpose was commercially available. Instead of furnishing equipment to construct a distillation operation, B&J offered to provide the purified solvents. When the customer accepted, the commercial high purity solvent business was born.

Origins of the Burdick & Jackson Quality System
Burdick & Jackson began to purify "Distilled in Glass" solvents for the emerging analytical techniques of gas chromatography (GC), thin layer chromatography (TLC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In addition to solvents, B&J continued to manufacture many fine organic chemicals, pharmaceutical precursors and polymer intermediates from 1960 to 1980. Strict adherence to documented operating procedures, material traceability and quality assurance became part of B&J culture and business practice. As the business grew and received recognition for manufacturing expertise, B&J was acquired by Hoffmann-LaRoche in 1974. By the late 1970's, B&J's product offering included over 600 fine organic chemicals such as doxylamine succinate, a sleep aid, and diphenylisophthalate, a monomer used in NASA space suit fabric.

Focus on High Purity Solvents
Providing one solvent grade to meet every customer's analytical requirements was the original goal of B&J's "Distilled in Glass" solvents. Today's B&J Brand solvent line evolved from the "Distilled in Glass" concept. As instrumentation, detectors and laboratory techniques became more sophisticated, the need for application-specific solvent grades became evident. In 1980, B&J focused all its efforts on high purity solvents and discontinued manufacturing fine organic chemicals.

Industry Leader in High Purity Solvents
American Hospital Supply purchased B&J in 1983 and sold B&J products nationally through their Scientific Products Division, a leading US laboratory supply distributor. American Hospital Supply was acquired by Baxter Travenol during 1985 and B&J ultimately became a business unit of Baxter Diagnostics, a Baxter Healthcare Corporation subsidiary. After briefly being part of Dade International (the former Baxter Diagnostics division), B&J was purchased by AlliedSignal on December 6, 1996. In December 1999, AlliedSignal and Honeywell merged using Honeywell as the company name. Burdick & Jackson brand products are now part of Honeywell Chemicals which also provides active pharmaceutical ingredients, pharmaceutical and agrochemicals intermediates and fluorine chemistry. Through many changes, B&J continues to maintain its solid reputation for supplying high quality products.