146 ANDREAS KURTZ 



and several weeks before the judgment on 

 appeal, death intervened. On the 3ist 

 March, 1846, smitten by a stroke of apoplexy, 

 the result of the harassing excitement which 

 his anxieties and worries had occasioned him, 

 Andreas Kurtz was found to have passed away 

 during the night ; he died in his sleep, alone. 

 His son Andrew George, who at the time 

 of his father's death was studying for the law, 

 was thus suddenly summoned to succeed him 

 in the business, to leave his legal studies and 

 becomeachemical manufacturer. Fortunately, 

 he entered the trade in its halcyon days, and, 

 supported by capable men in their various 

 departments, he was enabled to make his 

 father's busines a very great success. From 

 that day to this " The Sutton Alkali Works " 

 has been regarded as one of the best arranged 

 and best managed works amongst the 

 chemical works of St. Helens. Although 

 from it have proceeded no novelties of inven- 

 tion, yet it has always been to the front in 

 adopting every improvement improved 

 facilities for the transit of goods, convenient 

 railway access, labour-saving appliances, 

 methodical arrangement of plant, the applica- 

 tion of new apparatus, and the manufacture 

 of new products in every way it has been 



