550 SAMUEL CABOT. 



of this sort, as he could find time, until his own manufactures absorbed 

 his whole attention. 



It was in 1877 that he began business on his own account in part- 

 nership with Frederick Nourse. They established a coal-tar distillery 

 at Chelsea, from which he hoped to develop an industry in fine organic 

 chemicals similar to that which was then showing such wonderful 

 growth in Germany, but the time was not ripe for such a growth in 

 America ; in fact, even now, thirty years afterward, this industry has 

 not yet emerged from its infancy. Accordingly he turned his attention 

 to the less varied list of products for which he found a demand. 

 Among these, lampblack was the most important, and he at once im- 

 proved the apparatus for its manufacture in his usual thorough, pains- 

 taking way. Mr. Nourse retired from the partnership in the autumn 

 of 1878, and after this he had sole charge of the business, keeping 

 himself a firm grasp on all departments of it, with the assistance of a 

 series of able managers, — his brother-in-law, Mr. C P. Nichols, 

 Mr. Edward Cunningham, Mr. W. R. Cabot, and Mr. M. G. Bennett. 



Always on the lookout for new fields of work, his attention was 

 called at an early day to the gas region of Pennsylvania, in which he 

 hoped to find mineral wealth similar to that of the Midland region of 

 England. Although these hopes were not fulfilled, the investigation 

 led him to the establishment in 1882-1883 of a plant at Worthington, 

 Pennsylvania, for making carbon black by burning natural gas against 

 a cast-iron plate beneath which the burner and black-box revolved. 

 This method, which was in part, perhaps wholly, original with him, is 

 still in use in the largest factory for this product. After a few years, 

 however (in 1888), his brother, Godfrey L. Cabot, who had worked 

 with him for a short time, took this business off his hands, and has car- 

 ried it on successfully ever since. 



At about the same time he began the manufacture of sulpho-naphthol 

 — one of the most excellent disinfectants known ; and another profit- 

 able new industry, rendered effective by him somewhat later, was the 

 preparation of creosote shingle stains. Many attempts had been 

 made in foreign countries to use creosote as a basis for paint, but none 

 of these had been crowned with success. He, however, had the pene- 

 tration to see that such a paint or stain would be specially adapted for 

 use with shingles, which were essentially unknown abroad, and after 

 this a painstaking study of the details and great care and thorough- 

 ness in the manufacture led to a complete victory over the difficulties, 

 which had proved too much for his predecessors. His insulating felt 

 for deadening sound, keeping out cold, and fireproofing, was an en- 

 tirely original idea. It consisted of eel-grass quilted between two 



