5G6 JOHN BARRISON BLAKE. 



Washington Street, corner of Union Park Street; he died in his home on 



Marlbo _ Si ton, July 5, 1899, in his ninety-first year. Mr. 



educated in private schools and in the English High School, 



which lie entered in 1821 as a member of it- first class. Later he became 



a pupil of the Rev. James Blake 1 1 owe. then rector of the West Parish 

 Church in Claremont, X. II.. whose daughter, a Becond cousin, he mar- 

 ried on his return from his explorations in South Ameri 



While his Btudies with Mr. Howe were mainly classical and he was 

 fitted to enter Harvard, hia interest in chemistry and in anatomy was such 

 ' lead him to prefer tfa i lies to those of a collegiate course prin- 



cipally literary ami mathematical. It was in pursuit of his chosen 

 subjects that, after a period of study in a chemical manufacturing estab- 

 lishment, he became assistant to. and pupil of. Dr. Webster, from whom 

 be received valuable instruction, which enabled him in tie' year 1827, 

 when only nineteen years of age, to establish, with money advanced by 

 . the Norfolk Laboratory, for the manufacture of purr dri _- 

 and chemicals. This laboratory was situated in Jamaica Plain near 

 Forest Hills, upon the Dedham Turnpike. One of its products was pure 

 sulphuric ether, and it was in the larger laboratory of later construction 

 that the ether used in the first demonstration of the value of ether ana. s- 



iia was made under Mr. Blake's personal supervision. In addition to 

 the commercial work of the laboratory .Mr. Blake carried on a series of 

 invt »ns into the physiological effects of poisons, the composition of 



precious stones, and the production of alloys applicable to the mechanic 

 arts. At the end of three \ ears of successful operation the buildings u 

 destroyed by a fire, resulting from the explosion of a carboy of ether, 

 but were immediately rebuilt on a larger scale j a joint stock company was 

 formed, arrangements were made with the Rothschilds for the importation 

 of quicksilver, and with a house in Tuscany controlling what was then the 

 world's principal supply of boric acid; and Mr. Maximilian Isnard, who 

 introduced the manufacture of beet root Bugar into France, became an 



>ciate. 



At that time but little was known of the sources of supply of nitrate 



of -oda. of which large quantities were used in the work-, beyond the 



name, of the -mall port- on the roast of Peru from which it was shipped. 



[gnorance on the subject, the value of the article, and the novelty of 



ring and exploring an unknown region were sufficient incentives to 



turn Mr. Blake's thoughts in tin- direction rather than alone the beaten 



line- of travel in search of the pest and recreation which he needed after 



eight year- of anxious labor. Books gave very little information concern- 



