He was very conscious of his company's responsibility to society and to its employees. He introduced a universal bonus system in 1949 and eventually stock ownership, once the company went public in 1970. The beakers are an illustration of the Kira fabric's life cycle—the first textile to be created from corn.
The first beaker (left) shows corn kernels, then corn starch, then liquified, then purified, then synthesized into a corn-based polymer, then woven to a textile, and then the last beaker shows that when composted the fabric simply returns to the soil.
Aaron Britt at Dwell: The scion of the Dow Chemical family Alden B. Dow. He did over a hundred buildings in a town of about 40,000 from the 1930s to the 1970s, and never had I seen a town whose aesthetic and feel owed such a debt to just one architect. I got a great tour of the Alden B. Dow home and studio (go if you can!) as well as a tour of town from the home and studio's director Craig McDonald. Have a look at this slideshow to see what I did.