Development of the Chemical Industry 5 



chemical industry as we have it today. It is character- 

 istic that none of the leaders ever actively engaged in the 

 industries. They worked in their laboratories for the 

 love of science, leaving the fruits of their work to be 

 reaped by their followers. But owing to their methods 

 of teaching, their students became their friends, remain- 

 ing in contact with them in later life, and it seems this 

 inter-relation between university and industry has been 

 largely instrumental in the phenomenal development of 

 our chemical inorganic and organic industries. 



The first branch of chemical manufacture established 

 on a large scale was an outgrowth of the French revolu- 

 tion and the Napoleonic wars, when the English block- 

 aded the continent of Europe, and when the French could 

 not obtain potash for making soap and glass. It was 

 known that soda in many cases could be substituted for 

 potash, and there was an abundance of salt. So the 

 French Government offered a large reward for a chem- 

 ical process to make soda from salt, and the LeBlanc soda 

 process was the outcome of it. The LeBlanc soda process 

 involved the manufacture of sulphuric acid and the 

 chamber process was highly dev^eloped. As a by-product 

 large quantities of hydrochloric acid were obtained, for 

 which there was no immediate outlet, and the wasting of 

 which poisoned the rivers, until it was learned that 

 chlorine and bleaching powder could be made from it. 

 Chlorine was made by the aid of manganese peroxide 

 which was wasted, and the Weldon process was invented 

 which regenerated this waste. Later hydrochloric acid 

 was decomposed by the Deacon process, in which a cat- 

 alyser was used for the first time on a large scale. The 

 sulphur used in the process was lost and many efforts 

 were made for its recovery, when the ammonia soda 

 process superseded the LeBlanc process, putting an end 

 to a beautiful combination of chemical processes. This 

 most marvelously developed chemical structure, built up 

 at the beginning of the 19th century, was superseded by 

 a cheaper process at the end of the same century. The 



