ON THE CHEMICAL MANUFACTURES OF THE NORTHERN DISTRICTS. 709 
Waldie, about the year 1770, at the Westgate, Newcastle, whence it was 
remoyed to the Close. The works were purchased by Mr. Thomas Double- 
day in 1775, and continued under the firm of Doubleday and Easterby until 
the year 1841. Other manufactories were built in Sandgate and at the 
Ouseburn, all of which have been abandoned. Very little hard soap was 
made until the end of the last century; Castile soap only was used. Up 
to 1770, soft soap was chiefly used for both domestic and manufacturing 
purposes. The chief improvements introduced have been the use of palm 
oil, bleached by Watts’s process, and the manufacture of the ley by boiling 
the alkali with the lime, instead of the so-called “ cold process.’ The total 
quantity now manufactured exceeds 6000 tons per annum. The prices of 
the raw materials at the present time are as follows:—tallow, first sort, 
T. C., 43s. 6d.; fine American resin, 36s. to 39s.; best yellow soap, 33s. to 
35s.; best mottled soap, 33s. per cwt. 
Prussiate of Potash.—The first attempt to manufacture any compound of 
cyanogen in this district was made in the beginning of the last century, by a 
Jew, in Oakwellgate, in Gateshead. He afterwards removed his apparatus 
to Corbridge ; but, failing in producing a saleable article, he discontinued 
the operation, which was taken up by a Mr. Simpson, who ultimately suc- 
ceeded in perfecting the process in works erected at Elswick. Mr. Simpson 
manufactured Prussian and other kinds of blue colours; and at his death 
the manufacture was removed to Heworth, where the Messrs. Bramwell have 
carried on the works since 1758. Prussian blue was the only form in which 
the cyanogen was produced, from which prussiate of potash was afterwards 
manufactured. This salt was not known in commerce in a crystallized form, 
however, till about the year 1825, when the price was 5s. per pound. The 
price has now fallen to 113d. Mr. Bramwell has introduced various im- 
provements in the manufacture of this salt, employing close pots, in which 
the fused materials are worked by machinery, and substituting sulphate of 
potash for the more expensive potashes ; but notwithstanding the application 
of every chemical and mechanical appliance, and the low prices at which the 
prussiate of potash is sold, the demand has fallen off, and at present only two 
tons of yellow prussiate and 3 ton of red prussiate are manufactured weekly. 
The decline in this trade has arisen partly from the American civil war, and 
partly from the introduction of the aniline colours. The celebrated attempt, 
in 1844, to produce cyanogen from the nitrogen of the air, was made at these 
works; and although the efforts of Mr. Bramwell and his friends were per- 
fectly successful in a chemical point of view, these gentlemen were induced 
to abandon the process as a manufacturing operation. 
Alum.—The first alum-works established in England were erected at 
Guisborough in 1460, by Sir Thomas Challoner, who brought over a work- 
man from France to carry out the then secret process, the monopoly of this 
trade being in the hands of the Pope. The works were subsequently decreed 
to be a royal mine, and passed into the possession of the Crown. They were 
afterwards farmed to Sir Paul Pindar, at a rental of £15,000 per annum. 
He employed about 800 persons, and made large profits, his monopoly enabling 
him to keep up the price to £26 per ton. The Long Parliament restored the 
mines to the original owners, and at the Restoration not less than five manu- 
factories were in operation. The process is well known; but potash-alum 
(formerly the only alum made) is now only produced at the Loftus Works, all 
the other manufacturers employing the cheaper sulphate of ammonia. From 
the mother liquors large quantities of an impure sulphate of magnesia are 
obtained, which are partly refined and partly consumed as a manure, mixed 
