A story in New York World newspaper reveals that the Imperial German government had purchased excess phenol from Thomas Edison that could be used to make explosives for the war effort and diverted it to Bayer for aspirin production.

The Great Phenol Plot was a clandestine effort by the German Government during the early years of World War I to divert American-produced phenol away from the manufacture of high explosives that supported the British war effort. It was used by the German-owned Bayer company, who could no longer import phenol from Britain, to produce aspirin.

The New York World was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Joseph Pulitzer, it was a pioneer in yellow journalism, capturing readers' attention with sensation, sports, sex and scandal and pushing its daily circulation to the one-million mark. It was sold in 1930 and merged into the New York World-Telegram.