A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



b'lth at Wigan and Hurlet. Of the latter the 

 Nicholson letters give full details, but those at 

 Wi:;an are only casually alluded to. One of 

 Robert Nicholson's letters, headed ' Hurlett, 

 9 August, 1765,' suggests a remedy for 'the 

 colour of our alum at Wigan not being good,' 

 which shows that alum had actually been made 

 at Wigan. The family tradition is that whilst 

 the works at Hurlet were very successful, those 

 at Wigan were not.^ 



With reference to the early chemical industries 

 in the Manchester district, our information is far 

 from complete. The two chief products appear 

 to have been ' vitriolic acid ' and ' iron liquor.' 

 The former was probably used for the manufac- 

 ture of other chemicals, the latter was required 

 by calico printers. The earliest makers of whom 

 we can find any mention are Benjamin Rawson 

 & Co., of Water Street, who are described in 

 the Manchester and Salford Directory of 1 7 72 

 as vitriol manufacturers. In the same Direc- 

 tory John White of MacDonald's Lane figures 

 as a liquor merchant, but it is not till 1794 that 

 Andrew Patten of 1 8, Quay Street, Salford, and 

 William White of 33, Water Street, are put 

 down as iron-liquor manufacturers.^ At the 

 beginning of the nineteenth century, the num- 

 ber of vitriol makers and iron-liquor manufac- 

 turers in the Manchester district had considerably 

 increased. 



It is almost impossible to give an account of 

 the modern chemical industries without enter- 

 ing into a certain amount of technical detail. 

 In the first place it is necessary to explain the 

 difference between two great processes, the Le 

 Blanc and the Ammonia Soda. Lancashire has 

 always been closely associated with the former, 

 and keen competition has led to its improvement 

 and development, and in particular to the gradual 

 use of the so-called waste products. The object 

 of the Le Blanc process is to obtain soda from 

 common salt. In the first place sulphuric acid 

 is obtained by burning pyrites. The acid is 

 mixed with salt, and sodium sulphate and 

 hydrochloric acid gas are obtained. This solid sul- 

 phate of soda, or ' soda cake,' is heated in re- 

 volving furnaces with coal and limestone. In 

 this manner carbonate of soda and sulphide of 

 calcium or 'alkali waste' are produced, and the 

 former is converted into caustic soda or soda 

 ash. The two products originally wasted were 



' We are greatly beholden to Mr. Francis Nichol- 

 son, F.Z.S., of Windermere, a great-grandson of the 

 Robert Nicholson mentioned above, and to Mr. Ernest 

 Axon, for all the information concerning the Wigan 

 Copperas Works. 



* We can only find one Manchester and Salford 

 Directory between 1773 and 1794, viz. 1788, and 

 as they are all three edited by different people, the 

 omission of any name cannot be considered conclusive 

 evidence that the individual or firm in question did 

 not exist. 



hydrochloric acid and sulphide of calcium. About 

 the middle of the nineteenth century, Lc Blanc 

 manufacturers began to use the former in the 

 production of bleaching-powder, which is obtained 

 by passing chlorine over slaked lime. The latter 

 has been turned to useful purposes by a process 

 suggested by Mr. A. M. Chance of Birmingham, 

 bywhich sulphur, practically pure, and carbonate 

 of lime, a substance used in the manufacture of 

 cement, are obtained. 



The Ammonia-Soda process was first intro- 

 duced on a commercial scale some forty years 

 ago. It rests on the fact that when ammonia 

 and carbonic acid gas are mixed with a strong; 

 solution of salt in water, bicarbonate of soda 

 and ammonium chloride are obtained. The 

 engineering and mechanical difficulties formed a 

 stumbling-block for many years, but were finally 

 removed by a Belgian engineer named Solvay, 

 who has given his name to the lofty towers 

 which form the most conspicuous feature of an 

 ammonia soda works. Their object is to obtain 

 the fall, or space, required to make the mixing 

 of the liquid and the gas effective. 



As already mentioned, almost all the alkali 

 manufactured in Lancashire is produced by the 

 Le Blanc process. The only exception we are 

 aware of is that of the Fleetwood Alkali Works, 

 where the Ammonia-Soda process is employed." 



The first large works for the manufacture of 

 alkali by the Le Blanc process, after the abolition 

 of the duty on salt in 1823, were erected in 

 Liverpool by James Muspratt in that year. 

 The process of manufacture consisted in the suc- 

 cessive preparation of sulphuric acid, sodium 

 sulphate, and sodium carbonate. At first the 

 soap makers would not buy the new soda, and 

 Muspratt had to give away large quantities to 

 overcome the prejudice. For a time only black-ash 

 was made, but when it was discovered that this 

 lost strength by lying in the air, it became 

 necessary to convert it into white soda-ash, by 

 lixiviating it with water. For some six years 

 Muspratt's Works remained the only one in 

 England, except a few small works on the 

 Tyne. In 1829 Josias Christopher Gamble 

 erected chemical works at St. Helens in partner- 

 ship with James Muspratt, but the partnership 

 lasted two years only. These two pioneers of 

 the alkali trade at St. Helens encountered bitter 

 opposition from the agricultural interests, and to 

 avoid legal proceedings Gamble was obliged to 

 pay liberal compensation. In 1830 alum works 

 were commenced at Gerards Bridge, St. Helens, 

 but failed and were sold to Messrs. Gamble and 

 Messrs. J. & J. Crossfield, soap boilers of Warring- 

 ton. In 1836 Joseph and James Crossfield became 

 partners of Gamble, and in 1837 Simon Cross- 

 field, a younger brother, joined the firm. The 



" One of the best-known works using this process 

 is that of Messrs. Brunner, Mond & Co., Ltd., 

 North wlch, Cheshire. 



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