Scientific Industries. 489 



largely imported by the firm, and they express the oil from this 

 in their factories for the manufacture of soft soap, the residue 

 forming cotton seed cakes for the feeding of live stock. Part of 

 the oil is exported, to be made up into butterine. Some 500 

 employees are engaged in this industry. In addition to an 

 institute, the Royal Primrose Hall, there is a recreation ground 

 provided for the employees. 



ABRAM LYLE & SONS, LTD., SILVERTOWN. 



Originally in Greenock, the one-time home of sugar refining, as 

 timber merchants and makers of boxes and casks for the packing 

 of sugar, this firm, best known for their golden syrup in its familiar 

 tins, took up the sugar industry in 1862, but finally settled at 

 Silvertown in 1881. They have an output of nearly 2,000 tons of 

 sugar a week, in addition to syrup. 



ODAM'S CHEMICAL MANURE Co., SILVERTOWN. 



This company is one of the oldest in Silvertown, starting in 1852 

 on land to the east of the entrance to the Victoria Docks, but the 

 works were much enlarged in 1866, when the Privy Council ordered 

 all foreign cattle to be landed at the wharf made by Mr. Odam and 

 slaughtered in slaughter houses there to prevent the rinderpest 

 being carried inland. 



Nitrates, phosphates, and superphosphates for manuring land 

 are produced at the rate of about 100 tons per diem. 



HENRY TATE & Co., SILVERTOWN. 



This firm, which has a leading position in the sugar trade, Tate's 

 cube sugar being a household word, came from Liverpool in 1877, 

 where they had been established from 1862, when they bought the 

 sugar refinery business of John Wright & Co. Previous to 1876, 

 sugar was manufactured in loaves, which were cut up into small 

 cubes for domestic use by the retailers, with the aid of the " guillo- 

 tine " ; but a patent for manufacturing sugar in small cubes ready 

 for use was taken out by the firm in 1876, and their migration to 

 Silvertown was for the purpose of developing their patent, which 

 they successfully accomplished against all opposition. The 

 patent was successfully contested in the Law Courts in 1882 against 

 the Paris firm of Say & Co. The weekly output of 600 tons in 

 1878 has risen to over 2,000 tons, and, to cope with this, some five 

 or six hundred men besides girls are employed. For the welfare 

 of these employees out of business hours the Tate Institute was 

 erected near the works. 



Sir Henry Tate, the founder of the firm, is known for his muni- 

 ficent gift of the Tate Picture Gallery to the nation, and when he 

 died in 1899 he left a large sum to charity. 



