HENRY DEACON 187 



him, that it was Deacon who initiated, 

 superintended and directed the experiments, 

 who explained as the result of his own thought 

 and reasoning its philosophy, and who 

 designed its working plant. The reactions 

 were somewhat occult, the plant was involved 

 and complicated, so many points had to be 

 considered in the working, that its advantages 

 were not so readily apprehended as those of 

 Weldon's invention; and before the "Deacon" 

 process was understood, the "Weldon" was 

 widely adopted and at work. Nevertheless, 

 he prophesied that his must be the process of 

 the future, and whereas Weldon's at the best 

 could only give one ton of bleach for 43 cwts. 

 of salt ; his would certainly give a ton of 

 bleach for 1 3 cwts. of salt. 



The philosophical character of Deacon's 

 mind is well illustrated in the various papers 

 he read and lectures he delivered. Before the 

 British Association in Liverpool, in Septem- 

 ber, 1870, he read a paper on "A new method 

 of obtaining chlorine." It was here that he 

 put forth his theory that chemical reactions, 

 as well as mechanical motions, were obtained 

 in obedience to the law enunciated in the 

 parallelogram of forces. "My idea is that 

 concurrent chemical forces unite and are 



