724 



OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. 



undertaken. His attention was directed to the 

 manufacture of soda-ash by the Leblanc pro- 

 cess ; and, unable to persuade his partner to 

 join him, he erected the works near Liverpool, 

 which are still in existence. He erected sul- 

 phuric-acid chambers, gradually completed his 

 plant, and in 1823 began the manufacture of 

 soda. At first he made only the black ash, for 

 which the demand grew rapidly, and, after ef- 

 fecting improvements in his process, enlarged 

 his works. Notwithstanding litigation and dif- 

 ficulty in obtaining crude materials, Mr. Mus- 

 pratt steadily endeavored to diminish the cost 

 of production, and to lower the price of the 

 ash. For this purpose he purchased sulphur- 

 mines in Sicily and salt-works in Winsford, 

 but the Neapolitan Government imposed a 

 heavy export duty on all sulphur sent to Eng- 

 land, and in consequence the manufacture of 

 sulphur from pyrites was established. For 

 many years he continued successful in his busi- 

 ness, introducing new improvements when- 

 ever possible into his works, and employing 

 the bast of scientific talent in his laboratory. 

 In 1823, when he began the manufacture of 

 soda-ash, this material was sold at the equiva- 

 lent of 24 a ton of 48 per cent. To-day the 

 price is 4 a ton. Sulphuric acid has been re- 

 duced from three pence to less than a half- 

 penny a pound ; soda-crystals from 60 a ton 

 to as many shillings, and sulphate of soda from 

 upward of 7 a ton to 27 shillings a ton. When 

 we consider how indispensable each of these 

 articles is to the chemical industries of to-day, 

 some idea may be formed of the great benefit 

 to humanity that has arisen from the develop- 

 ment of the manufacture of alkali, much of 

 which is due directly to the efforts of Mr. Mus- 

 pratt. In 1842, he withdrew from practical 

 connection with his business, and resided in 

 various parts of the Continent until 1854, since 

 when he had lived in comparative retirement 

 at his residence, Seaforth Hall. He was inti- 

 mate with many of the eminent chemists of a . 

 former generation, including Baron Liebig, Sir 

 Lyon Playfair, Dr. James Young, Dr. Thomas 

 Graham, and Dr. L. F. Knapp. 



Norbnry, It., an English artist, born in Mac- 

 clesfield in 1816; died May 7, 1886. He was 

 an exhibitor at the Royal Academy and other 

 exhibitions, was assistant master of design, and 

 subsequently head-master of the School of De- 

 sign in Liverpool. Mr. Norbury was Presi- 

 dent of the Water-Color Society and a member 

 of the Liverpool Academy and of the Cam- 

 brian Academy. The versatility of his artistic 

 powers was remarkable; he could execute 

 cartoon decorative designs and portraits with 

 equal facility. He also gained the prize for 

 sculpture in 1851. 



Oliphant, Mrs. Lanrencc, a religious author, 

 born in Paris about 1841; died in Haipha, 

 Syria, Jan. 20, 1886. Her maiden name was 

 Octavie L' Estrange. She was of English ex- 

 traction on her mother's side, and in 1871 mar- 

 ried Laurence Oliphant, who, as well as his 



mother, had adopted the doctrines of the Amer- 

 ican sect called the Brothers of the New Life. 

 They resided after their marriage in the United 

 States, and afterward in Syria, where tiieir 

 means and efforts were devoted to the coloni- 

 zation of Jews in Palestine. In 1884, Mrs. 

 Oliphant published a volume explaining her 

 religious doctrines. 



Oilier, Edmund, an English author, born in 

 1827; died in Chelsea, April 18, 1886. After 

 some years of literary work he became one of 

 the stall' of u Household Words," under Charles 

 Dickens. His principal works arc : " Poems 

 from the Greek Mythology"; "Miscellaneous 

 Poems" (1867); a "very poor "History of the 

 United States"; "Illustrated History of the 

 War between France and Germany " (1871); 

 "History of the Russo-Turkish War" (1H77- 

 '79) ; and " A Popular History of Sacred Art," 

 the last named illustrated by Dore. 



Ordisli, Rowland Masoii, an English engineer, 

 born in Derbyshire in 1824; died Sept. 11, 

 1886. He began his professional life during 

 the railway mania of 1844~'47. W T hile yet a 

 youth he entered into the competition for plans 

 for the Victoria Bridge, at Windsor, and, from 

 a large number of those submitted, the Queen 

 selected his. He was afterward engaged in 

 working out the details of the Great Exhibition 

 building of 1851, and also had charge of its 

 reconstruction as the Crystal Palace at Syden- 

 ham. He was consulted on many important 

 engineering matters, and strengthened the 

 domes of the Exhibition Building of 1862 by a 

 system of iron bracing of his own design. He 

 also worked on the details of the iron-work of 

 the Amsterdam Crystal Palace. Among his 

 parliamentary schemes was one for a high- 

 level suspen>ion-bridge across the Thames, an- 

 other for an underground railway from Char- 

 ing Cross to join the Northwestern Railway 

 system. Mr. Ordish was the inventor of the 

 rigid system of suspension, carried out in the 

 Albert Bridge across the Thames at Chelsea, 

 w r hich he designed and constructed. He was 

 the promoter and actuary in many similar 

 works on the Continent. 



Palat, Lieutenant, a French soldier, born in 

 1856; murdered by his guides while on his 

 way from Algiers to Senegal ma Timbuctoo 

 on a government mission. He was an accom- 

 plished linguist, and translated the account of 

 Timbuctoo by Lenz, the Austrian explorer. 



Piloty, Carl, a German painter, born at Mu- 

 nich, Oct. 1, 1826; died July 21, 1886. He 

 was a pupil of the Academy, and afterward 

 studied under Carl Schorn and in Paris. On 

 his return to Munich he attracted notice with 

 two genre pictures, " The Dying Mother " and 

 " The Nurse," marked by the free use of color. 

 He was for many years the director of the Art 

 Academy at Munich, and was the originntor of 

 the coloristic tendency in modern German art 

 and of the realistic style in German historical 

 and genre painting. Makart and all the lead- 

 ing German colorists were his pupils. His 



