OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (CHADWICK CHICKERING.) 



585 



of division to cause the combined mass to sink 

 in the molten caustic, and thus come into inti- 

 mate contact therewith, after which the sodium 

 was distilled, the iron filings being recovered from 

 the distillation vessel. This process was the key 

 with which he opened a new and cheap method 

 of producing aluminum. Castner placed his in- 

 vention in England, where the Aluminum Com- 

 pany was formed, with himself as managing di- 

 rector of the works erected under his supervision 

 in Oldbury, and there he further improved his 

 process by devising methods for purifying the 

 double chloride of aluminum and sodium. By the 

 Castner process the market price of aluminum 

 then more than $10 a pound was reduced to $5, 

 and later to less than $1 a pound. Sir Frederick 

 A. Abel, in his address before the British Associa- 

 tion in 1890 (see Annual Cyclopaedia for 1890, 

 page 31), said: "The success which has culmi- 

 nated in the admirable Castner process consti- 

 tutes one of the most interesting of recent illus- 

 trations of the progress made in technical chemis- 

 try upon the happy blending of chemical with 

 mechanical science through the labors of the 

 chemical engineer." The introduction of the 

 manufacture of aluminum by aid of the electric 

 current made the chemical process obsolete. Mr. 

 Castner then turned his attention to a method for 

 cheapening the cost of sodium and to finding a 

 market for that product. The latter he accom- 

 plished by introducing it in the manufacture of 

 alkaline cyanide as distinguished from potassi- 

 um cyanide, so largely used in gold-extraction 

 processes, and also by using it in some of the 

 reactions in the manufacture of certain coal-tar 

 products. He invented a continuous process for 

 production of sodium peroxide by causing a cur- 

 rent of air to pass over heated sodium, the ar- 

 rangement being such that the fresh sodium was 

 first submitted to the action of air almost de- 

 prived of its oxygen, and as it was fed forward 

 met air containing more and more oxygen, until 

 just before withdrawal it met practically fresh 

 air and was thoroughly oxidized. His sodium 

 peroxide has largely taken the place of barium 

 peroxide used in the production of hydrogen per- 

 oxide, the great bleaching agent. For the cheap- 

 ening of the cost of the production of sodium 

 he also invented the first practical electrolytic 

 method of treating caustic soda, and his process 

 is now used in Oldbury, England, in Niagara 

 Falls, N. Y., and in Rheinfelden, Germany. Fully 

 nine tenths of all the sodium used in the world 

 is produced by his method. He invented a process 

 for the manufacture of pure caustic soda, in 

 which mercury was used at the same time, both 

 as a mechanical seal and an electrical connection 

 between two compartments of a decomposing cell 

 containing sodium chloride in solution and water 

 or weak caustic soda respectively, the mercury 

 taking up the sodium in the chloride compart- 

 ment and being moved to the water compartment, 

 where the amalgam was decomposing in the pres- 

 ence of water, forming caustic soda, the mercury 

 being returned to the sodium-chloride compart- 

 ment to enable it to receive a fresh charge of 

 sodium. The chlorine obtained in the process was 

 used in the production of bleaching powder. This 

 invention \vas a commercial success, and a plant 

 was established by the Castner-Kellner Alkali 

 Company at Weston Point, Runcorn, England, 

 for the manufacture of caustic soda by this 

 method. Castner was also the inventor of other 

 processes of minor importance, which were used 

 incidentally in his large undertakings. He was 

 a member of the Society of Chemical Industry in 

 London, and in a sketch of his life in its proceed- 



ings it is written that " his name is likely to live 

 among those men of science who have devoted 

 their energy to practical manufacturing pro- 

 cesses." 



Chadwick, Edmund, educator and reformer, 

 born in Middleton, N. H., Jan. 12, 1812; died in 

 Eddytown, N. Y., April 7, 1899. His ancestors 

 came to Massachusetts from England in the great 

 immigration of 1630, under Gov. Endieott, and 

 settled about Plymouth Bay. He was a lineal 

 descendant in the fifth generation from John 

 Chadwick, who died in 1707 and is buried in 

 Bradford, Mass. Edmund Chadwick was the third 

 son of the Hon. John Chadwick and Elizabeth 

 Stearns, his wife. He fitted for college at Phillips 

 Exeter Academy, spent one year at Dartmouth 

 in the study of medicine, and then entered Colby 

 College, where he remained two years, finishing 

 his course at Bowdoin College, where he gradu- 

 ated in 1840. He studied two years at Lane Theo- 

 logical Seminary, and for the same period at 

 Bangor Theological Seminary. He was ordained 

 to the ministry and preached one year in Frank- 

 lin, N. H., when, his health failing, he went South, 

 teaching classics and mathematics one year in 

 the Classical and Mathematical Institute at Nash- 

 ville, Tenn. In 1847 he became president of 

 Starkey Seminary, at Eddytown, N. Y. He mar- 

 ried in 1847 Cassandra Hobart, who soon died. 

 In 1849 he married Adaline Ward, by whom he 

 had seven children, of whom six survive him. 

 Mrs. Chadwick was associated for fifteen years 

 with her husband in teaching, and contributed 

 in high degree to his success. She died in 1873. 

 Mr. Chadwick united to broad culture a distin- 

 guished personality and the ability to inspire in 

 other minds his own high enthusiasms. He had 

 in large measure a genius for teaching, and under 

 his administration Starkey Seminary, hitherto 

 little known, attained a wide reputation for indi- 

 vidual methods and excellence of scholarship, 

 drawing pupils from all parts of the United States 

 and Canada. In 1861 Mr. Chadwick withdrew 

 from the seminary, and after three years as prin- 

 cipal of Dundee Academy retired permanently 

 from teaching, devoting his energies to horticul- 

 ture and moral reforms. He was an early and 

 ardent abolitionist and a zealous temperance 

 worker, and was the first to advocate the estab- 

 lishment of Niagara Falls as a national park. 

 Later subjects to engage his attention were for- 

 est culture and jury reform. 



Champney, Edwin Graves, artist, born in 

 Boston, Mass., Aug. 24, 1842; died in Arlington 

 Heights, Mass., Sept. 25, 1899. He studied art 

 with his uncle, Benjamin Champney, and also 

 spent several years in Antwerp, studying there 

 in company with Millet, Van Beers, and others. 

 He painted some fine cattle pieces, landscapes, 

 and portraits. Among the latter was one of his 

 father, which hangs in the Woburn Library. He 

 was one of the early teachers at the Boston Art 

 Museum. 



Chickering, George Harvey, manufacturer, 

 born in Boston, Mass., in 1829; died in Milton, 

 Mass., Nov. 17, 1899. He was the youngest son 

 of Jonas Chickering, founder of the pianoforte 

 business that still bears the family name. He 

 was educated in the public schools of Boston, 

 and went from school life directly to work at 

 the bench in his father's manufactory. In 1853, 

 upon his father's death, he succeeded, with his 

 two elder brothers, to the business, and after the 

 death of his brothers he became the sole head 

 of the company, though for several years previous 

 to his death he was not actively engaged in it. 

 He was active among the musical organizations 



