564 Professor George Lunge [March 15, 



their turn, by giving a wider scope to the scientific treatment of 

 industrial problems in their factories than has hitherto been the rule ? 

 Seeing that in pure science the people of Great Britain have never 

 lagged behind any other nation, and that, on the contrary, the land 

 of Newton and Faraday has been a beacon to all others at more than 

 one epoch, there is absolutely no valid reason why she should now, or 

 at any other time, be behind any other in the combination of science 

 with practice. 



Before turning to another chapter, I beg leave to mention a very 

 good instance of the way in which Englishmen have understood how 

 to combine engineering with chemical manufacture. I have already 

 spoken of the introduction into this country of the Leblanc process 

 for the manufacture of one of the most important chemical products, 

 carbonate of soda, or " alkali," in the parlance of trade. This pro- 

 cess came over from France ; but it had not been long employed in 

 England before it was thoroughly modified in all particulars, and 

 thus rendered more efficient and more remunerative. In no instance 

 have the excellence of English methods, and their superiority over 

 those used at that time on the Continent, been better proved than 

 here. My own treatise on " Sulphuric Acid and Alkali " is, in its 

 technological part, based mainly on what I had learned and practised 

 during the twelve years of my residence in this country ; and if 

 that treatise has met with a favourable reception, as having proved 

 useful to both British and non-British alkali makers, it is due to 

 the circumstance just mentioned. But those methods, worked out 

 during the second and third quarter of the last century, have had 

 their day. A new process came up, which sapped the economical 

 foundation of the Leblanc process. The history of this, the ammonia- 

 soda process, has, strange to say, been directly contrary to so many 

 others. It was invented by two Englishmen, Dyar and Hemming, 

 who patented it in 1888, and who established the (very simple) 

 chemical part of it in such manner that nothing really essential 

 has been added since their time. But Dyar and Hemming did 

 not succeed in the practical application of their invention, nor did 

 their numerous successors meet with any better fortune, either in 

 this country or elsewhere. It was reserved to a Belgian engineer, 

 Ernest Solvay, to find the first economical solution of that problem, 

 and this he achieved only after many years of patient work, and 

 after sacrificing nearly all his means. Once he had gained his 

 point, however, the economical superiority of the ammonia over 

 the Leblanc process soon became evident. This was brought home 

 to English manufacturers by the success of the firm of Brunner, 

 Mond and Co., which had acquired Solvay's English patent rights. 

 The Leblanc process, and the enormous sums of money invested 

 in it, seemed even then doomed to speedy extinction. But for a 

 time, at least, this calamity was averted by the perseverance with 

 which the British alkali makers kept making improvements in the 



