The German industrial gas company Linde operates what it calls “one of the largest helium plants in the world” at the west end of Otis, Kansas, a small town on the Federal Helium Pipeline. The plant has been operating since 1965, and was the first liquid helium plant in the world. Linde completed a $90 billion merger in October 2018 with one of its competitors, Praxair, and the combined company, still called Linde, is now the world’s largest helium producer and supplier, as well as the largest industrial gas company, with approximately $27 billion in annual revenue. Linde was founded in Germany in 1879. During WWI, its US assets were confiscated and became part of the new US company, Union Carbide, which maintained the Linde brand name for its gas division. In 1992, Union Carbide sold this division to a company that became Praxair, but a series of acquisitions and mergers kept Praxair and Linde apart, until now.