September 13, 1900] 



NATURE 



467 



SIR JOHN BENNE T LA IVES, BART., F.R.S. 



ONE of our truly great men has passed away. Born 

 in 18 14, his life extended over the greater part 

 of a century full of great men and great deeds ; yet 

 among this goodly company he will surely be placed 

 in the front rank if we have regard to his personal 

 <jualities, and to the far-reaching and beneficial character 

 of his achievements. xA.n only son, he was left at the 

 age of eight without a father, and owed much of his 

 bringing up to the care of his mother, to whom he was 

 •extremely attached. Educated at Eton and Oxford, he 

 entered in 1834, at the age of twenty, on the manage- 

 ment of the paternal estate at Rothamsted, Herts. How 

 many youths placed thus early in the possession of a 

 beautiful home, and a sufficient income, would have 

 fallen into habits of easy enjoyment, and left nothing 

 behind them worth recording ? But these circumstances, 

 so full of danger to the average lad, were exactly suited 

 for the development of the work which the youthful 

 squire was to accomplish. His active mind obtained at 

 once perfect freedom of action. His love of work and 

 high sense of duty led him to devote himself to the 

 management of the home farm, and under his keen 

 observation its fields became to him pages of nature, 

 which year by year told him new facts, answered new 

 questions, and revealed fresh wonders. 



In boyhood Sir John Lawes had somehow imbibed a 

 taste for chemistry. He has told in his own graphic 

 way how he delighted to write with a stick of phos- 

 phorus on the door of a dark room, and to give electric 

 shocks to the old housekeeper. On taking up his 

 residence at Rothamsted he proceeded to fit up one of 

 the bedrooms as a laboratory and commenced a variety 

 of experiments. Chemistry was at that time to a large 

 extent a department of medical science, and some of his 

 earliest work was directed to the isolation of the alka- 

 loids of medicinal plants. The manufacture of calomel 

 by a new process — the combustion of mercury in chlorine 

 gas— also engaged his attention ; an old barn was con- 

 verted into a laboratory, and the process carried out for 

 some time on a commercial scale. We have here his first 

 decided step as a chemical manufacturer. 



Three or four years elapsed before any experiments 

 were made on agricultural subjects. In 1837 Sir John 

 Lawes commenced growing plants in pots with various 

 substances applied as manure, and more numerous 

 experiments of this kind were carried out in the two 

 following years. His attention had been drawn to the 

 uselessness of bones when applied as a manure to turnips 

 on heavy soils, although they proved extremely effective 

 on light soils. He tried treating fresh bone and burnt 

 bone with sulphuric acid, and speedily remarked the 

 great increase in the manurial effect of the bone so 

 treated. Mineral phosphates, as apatite, were treated 

 with sulphuric acid, and were also found to yield a most 

 effective manure. The value of these acidified manures 

 having been confirmed by trials in the field, both at 

 Rothamsted and elsewhere, it became evident that a fact 

 of the greatest importance to agriculture had been dis- 

 covered. The farmer was no longer dependent on bone 

 or guano for a supply of phosphate, the vast deposits of 

 phosphatic rocks and minerals were equally available for 

 his use, and could be converted into a potent manure by 

 treatment with sulphuric acid ; moreover, the new 

 manure was as effective upon heavy as upon light 

 land. 



In 1842 Sir John Lawes took out his patent for treat- 

 ing apatite and other phosphatic minerals with sulphuric 

 acid, thus producing superphosphates. This event laid 

 the foundation of the vast manufacture of artificial 

 manures which now supplies the varied wants of the 

 farmer, and enables him to restore or increase the fer- 

 tility of his land in the most effective and economical 

 NO. 161 I, VOL. 62] 



manner. At the present time the annual production of 

 superphosphates in the United Kingdom reaches the 

 enormous total of 900,000 tons ! In other countries the 

 quantities manufactured are equally prodigious. The 

 influence of these manures on the productiveness of the 

 soil in civilised countries is incalculable. 



It was a serious step for a young country squire to 

 start a large manure factory, and to enter himself as a 

 wrestler in the keen competitions of commercial life. 

 The difficulties which beset a successful, rapidly growing 

 business are especially great, as the continually increasing 

 demand for capital more than swallows up the accruing 

 profits. But the owner of Rothamsted had already 

 developed his mental powers. His cool head, his quick 

 grasp of a situation, his methodical habits, his enter- 

 prising spirit, and his scientific training made him a 

 most successful man of business. In 1843 a manure 

 factory was started by Sir John Lawes at Deptford 

 Creek. In 1857 the business had so increased that 100 

 acres of land were purchased at Barking Creek, and a 

 much larger and more complete plant erected. The 

 whole of the manure business was sold in 1872 for 

 300,000/. 



Having entered upon London commercial life. Sir 

 John Lawes did not confine his .enterprise to the produc- 

 tion of manures ; his activity was displayed in many 

 directions. In 1867 a large factory at Millwall for the 

 production of tartaric and citric acid was acquired. Here 

 the same tale has to be told as that relating to the manure 

 business. The scientific enterprise of the new owner, his 

 carefulness for economy of production, and the advan- 

 tages he obtained from command of capital, soon placed 

 him also at the head of this branch of English chemical 

 manufacture. 



We need not in this place refer at greater length to 

 Sir John Lawes' commercial career, which continued with 

 activity up to his death ; it has been due to the man to 

 depict the results of this large portion of his life's work, 

 and also to note the remarkable character which he 

 obtained in the commercial world. His enterprise and 

 command of capital made him at all times a formidable 

 competitor ; but his name was still better known as asso- 

 ciated with scrupulous fairness of dealing, and in cases 

 of difficulty it became recognised that it was better to 

 trust to Sir John Lawes' generosity than to fight for 

 individual rights. 



One might readily suppose that the commercial life of 

 such a successful man of business would have engrossed 

 nearly the whole of his time and energy ; this was far 

 from being the case. The wonder of the man was that 

 he carried on so long and so successfully a dual life. 

 He seemed to have the power of putting aside at once all 

 one class of thoughts and interests, and of embarking 

 with perfect freshness and enthusiasm on another sub- 

 ject ; and of all subjects, agriculture, chiefly regarded as 

 presenting a series of problems in agricultural chemistry, 

 was the one in which his greatest interests were centred. 

 Business might occupy his mind, but agriculture was 

 always the mistress of his heart. This would appear in 

 a striking manner in the midst of his London work. On 

 the occasion of his weekly visit to the chemical laboratory 

 at Millwall, a very few minutes would generally suffice 

 for the despatch of immediate business, and Sir John 

 Lawes would then frequently spend an hour in eloquent 

 talk with the writer of the present notice upon the agri- 

 cultural problems which then most interested him. 

 Visitors to the Rothamsted experiments might well be 

 ignorant of the existence of the vast London business. 

 The spirit of the counting-house never invaded Rotham- 

 sted ; here the experimental fields, and the reports 

 preparing on the results they yielded, seemed to engage 

 his whole attention. No one knew the fields as well as 

 he did, and an afternoon spent at home generally included 

 a walk, spud in hand, through the whole of them. 



