JAMES MUSPRATT 95 



working of the patent they did exactly the 

 reverse of what would have been necessary 

 to render it a source of profit. The idea was 

 brought forth prematurely, and as in the case 

 of a child born before its time, death quickly 

 follows." There appears to have been a 

 radical error in the composition of this 

 artificial manure: instead of making plant- 

 food soluble they made it insoluble to prevent 

 its being washed out of the soil, not recog- 

 nising the action of the soil on the soluble 

 constituents. Although this venture was a 

 failure, it paved the way for the great 

 chemical manure trade of to-day. 



The proprietors and managers of chemical 

 works at no time have a life of repose; new 

 inventions and discoveries, on which so many 

 minds are bent, may any day work a 

 revolution which may render much of their 

 property comparatively valueless ; their appa- 

 ratus is so complicated and various that 

 it needs constant and minute observation to 

 see that it does not get out of repair, and that 

 products are not thereby wasted. Workmen 

 have to be instructed and watched, the 

 laboratory has to be properly organised and 

 supervised, markets have to be watched in 

 the face of keen competition, but if in addition 



