INDUSTRIES 



works. The weighing and fiUing are in the charge 

 of girls wearing the neat uniform supplied by the 

 company, scrupulously clean white aprons, blouses, 

 and caps. But during the whole process the 

 salt is never once touched by the hand. 



Modern labour-saving machines worked by 

 electricity, by which all the nails required to 

 make one box are driven in by one blow, make 

 all the boxes required for packing on the premises. 



A glance at the company's books at once re- 

 veals the enormous area covered by their trade 

 operations. They have customers in every coun- 

 try of Europe, do an extensive American trade, 

 and have clients in the centre of Africa and the 

 north of Queensland. 



But an important change is to take place shortly. 

 In 1903 the Greatham Salt and Brine Works 

 were purchased by the company for ;f 33)500 ; 

 they were held under a lease for forty years from 

 the trustees of the Greatham Hospital from 1887, 

 and the company have now decided to move 

 from Newcastle to Greatham, so that the whole 

 process from the initial pumping up of the brine 

 to the final packing and dispatch of the salt will 

 take place in future at Greatham, thus a great 

 saving in transit is effected. 



It is sometimes asserted that the first reference 

 to chemical works, other than salt, on the Tyne 

 is found in an account of the examination in 

 1638, before the attorney-general, of a certain 

 John Cornelius, who was accused of trying to 

 entice workmen from the Tyneside Alum 

 Works to begin the industry in Denmark.** 

 It is probable, however, that the works referred 

 to were in the North Riding of Yorkshire. 



But if the Northumberland Alum Works 

 existed, the site is unknown, and it was not until 

 nearly a century later that Mr. John Cookson 

 started works at South Shields on the spot still 

 called Alum House Ham. Possibly the works 

 were run in connexion with the Saltwich Alum 

 Works near Whitby, for the alum liquor which 

 was crystallized into alum was brought in specially 

 devised vessels fitted with tanks from Saltwich,*' 

 and Ralph Carr, one of the partners in the Salt- 

 wich Works, into which he put ^^4,000 in 1758, 

 appears in 1762 as the owner of the Alum 

 House at South Shields. If the welfare of the 

 two businesses were interdependent these early 

 alkali works were not a success, for after losing 

 money for thirty years the Whitby Alum Works 

 were closed in 1789.** 



Until the end of the eighteenth century alkali 

 was made from Scotch kelp or barilla ; but Mr. 

 William Losh, who was living in Paris at the 

 time of the French Revolution, observed the 

 methods used by Leblanc, by which soda was 



"S.P. Dom. Chas. I, 16 Sept. 1538, vol. 398, 

 No. 90. 



" J. Salmon, South Shields : its Past, Present, and 

 Future (1856), 19. 



*' Carr Family, iii, 68. 



obtained by decomposing salt by sulphuric acid. 

 He returned to England and, helped by the earl 

 of Dundonald, began a series of experiments 

 which resulted in a patent being taken out in 

 1795 for treating neutral salts to obtain alkalies, 

 and the English alkali trade was begun by 

 the establishment of a manufactory of soda at 

 Walker-on-Tyne (Northumberland) in 1806. 

 But the new industry soon crossed the Tyne ; 

 in 1822-3 ^''- Cookson established a manu- 

 factory at Templetown (Tyne Docks), and later 

 built furnaces and chambers at South Shields 

 on a plan given to him by Mr. Doubleday. 

 Messrs. Doubleday and Easterby had as early as 

 1808 established works at Bell Quay, and the 

 repeal of the salt duty in 1823 produced a 

 sudden expansion of the trade. John Alden 

 began at Felling Shore in 1827-8, A. Clapham 

 at Friar's Goose in 1829, C. Allwood at South 

 Shore in 1830, Mr. Bell at Jarrow in 1836, Mr. 

 R. Imeary also at Jarrow in 1839, five years 

 after the foundation of the historic firm of 

 Pattinson and Co. at Felling.*' 



In the early days the gas which was thrown 

 off during the process of manufacture escaped 

 into the air and destroyed all vegetation round 

 the works. Messrs. Cookson especially were 

 subjected to constant and wearing prosecution. 

 They had however, the most enthusiastic 

 support of their workpeople. In a lengthy 

 address they not only recall the fact that many 

 of the Cookson works had existed for more than 

 a century, and express the utmost contentment 

 with the rewards they enjoyed in return for 

 their labour,'" but ofler to relieve the firm of 

 expense in any defence they might be called 

 upon to make, being as they say 



Quite satisfied that the continuance and prosperity of 

 the works is more a matter of interest to us than to 

 you. Our subscriptions though separately small will 



'' W. Gossage, History of the Alkali Manufacture ; 

 R. C. Clapham, ' The Commencement of the Soda 

 Manufacture,' Trans. Newcastle-upon-Tyne Chem. Soc. 



1, 43- 



'" We consider it impossible that any persons can 

 have joined in such proceedings, who are at all 

 acquainted with the vast importance of your works to 

 the town or who have reflected on the incalculable 

 mischief that must arise to the working classes by any 

 interference with the peaceful working of those manu- 

 factories, the suspension of which would bring ruin 

 and misery upon hundreds. We have ever reflected 

 with pleasure on the spirit and enterprise with which 

 you have conducted your various works within the 

 Borough, and when we call to mind that some of 

 these works have existed for a hundred years and have 

 been the support and comfort of our Forefathers, we 

 cannot but regard your Families and Connections as the 

 working man's Best Benefactors, and feel compelled to 

 express our most earnest hope that in spite of all 

 vexatious Persecutions, your establishments m.ay 

 continue to benefit the poor man for generations yet 

 to come. 



?0l 



