JAMES MUSPRATT. 



Romance, adventure, and enterprise are 

 comprised in the career of James Muspratt, 

 who was the father of the alkali trade in 

 this country. Losh had preceded him on the 

 Tyne in 1814, and in 1816 Tennant had 

 settled at St. Rollox, on the Clyde ; however 

 their operations were very limited, and 

 Muspratt was the first to establish a soda 

 works to carry out the Leblanc process 

 on a large scale. 



He was born in Dublin on the I2th August, 

 1793; his father was an Englishman, whose 

 brother was a director of the East India Com- 

 pany; his mother, who was a remarkable 

 woman of fine character and culture, was a 

 Miss Main.waring, one of the Cheshire family 

 of that name. They resided in Dublin, and 

 to a commercial school in that city sent their 

 son. 



We picture the boy amongst his play- 

 mates, a strong broad-shouldered lad, one 

 with whom one would not lightly choose 

 to provoke a quarrel, or encounter in a 



