INDUSTRIES 



partnership was dissolved in 1846, when the 

 St. Helens works passed into Gamble's sole 

 possession.' Since 1830 many similar works 

 have been erected in the neighbourhood of 

 St. Helens, among the first being those of James 

 Clough and of A. G. Kurtz. 



As raw products, sulphur, nitre, salt, lime- 

 stone, lime and slack were first employed. It 

 was in Liverpool that the substitution of pyrites 

 for sulphur, in the manufacture of sulphuric 

 acid, was originally tried, Muspratt having em- 

 ployed Welsh and Wicklow pyrites as early as 

 1839. In 1859 Spanish and Portuguese pyrites 

 were burnt by the alkali makers on a large scale. 

 The extraction of copper from the residues, by 

 smelting, was introduced by William Gossage at 

 Widnes. 



The condensation of hydrochloric acid gas in 

 coke towers was first carried out by Gossage at 

 Stoke Prior in 1836 ; in 1850 he removed his 

 works to Widnes. It was in Lancashire that 

 the closed roaster for the decomposition of salt 

 by sulphuric acid came into use, an invention 

 due to J. C. Gamble. Associated with this 

 stage in the manufacture of alkali is the employ- 

 ment of hydrochloric acid for the prepara- 

 tion of bleach. It was in Gamble's works at 

 St. Helens that the well-known Weldon man- 

 ganese recovery process was tried. Another use 

 of hydrochloric acid was developed by Balmain 

 and Parnell, at St. Helens, in 1847, and by 

 Gamble in 1848, in the production of chlorine 

 for the manufacture of potassium chlorate. This 

 is now an important industry, and the electro- 

 lytic preparation of potassium chlorate, and sub- 

 sequently of sodium chlorate, followed in its 

 wake. The Deacon chlorine process, in which 

 the decomposition of hydrochloric acid is effected 

 by the oxygen of the air, was worked out at 

 Widnes. 



A great change was brought about by the 

 substitution of revolving furnaces for handwork. 

 The black -ash revolver was introduced by 



G. Elliot and W. Russell at the Patent Alkali 

 Company's Works at St. Helens in 1853. In 

 the same year the manufacture of caustic soda on 

 a large scale was carried on by William Gossage. 



An important alteration in the economic 

 organization of the Lancashire chemical industry 

 occurred in 1890, when the principal Lancashire 

 alkali firms, together with many other British 

 firms manufacturing alkali by the Le Blanc 

 process, combined to form the United Alkali 

 Co., Ltd., largely with a view to strengthening 

 their position in the struggle with the Ammonia- 

 Soda process. 



Another class of chemical goods made in 

 Lancashire are aniline dyes. Two firms em- 

 ployed in this branch of the chemical industry 

 are The Clayton Aniline Dye Co., Ltd., and 

 Messrs. Levinstein, Ltd., both of Manchester. 

 The latter was established at Blackley in 1865 

 by Mr. Ivan Levinstein. Since 1889 the manu- 

 facture of sulphuric acid and of naphthalene has 

 been added to that of aniline colours. In 1891 

 the manufacture of naphthol and naphthylamine 

 was commenced, and in 1892 that of naphthionic 

 acid. It is chiefly in the colour-manufacturing 

 sphere that Messrs. Levinstein are known ; their 

 principal market is in Lancashire itself, but they 

 engage also in an extensive export trade. 



A further product of the Manchester district 

 is carbolic acid ; the firm of F. C. Calvert & 

 Co., Bradford, Manchester, was founded by the 

 late Dr. F. Crace Calvert, F.R.S., in 1857 on 

 a very small scale, with the object of extracting 

 carbolic acid from coal tar. At the present time 

 the firm employs 150 hands, and its chief pro- 

 ducts are carbolic acid and preparations therefrom. 



In 1881, 5,074 men and 125 women were 

 employed in the chemical industries of the 

 county. Ten years later the numbers had in- 

 creased to 7,885 and 134 respectively. The 

 figures for 1 90 1 show a slight falling off. In 

 that year 7,466 men and 214 women were 

 at work in these industries. 



INDIA-RUBBER 



A year or two before 1819 a Mr. Thomas 

 Hancock of London succeeded in finding a 

 solvent for india-rubber, which till then had 

 only been used for erasing pencil marks. As 

 nothing practical came of this he turned his 

 attention to its application in its elastic form, 

 particularly to articles of wearing apparel. The 

 chief difficulty was, that at a low temperature it 

 became rigid, but the warmth of the body was 

 thought sufficient to prevent this. On 29 April, 

 1 820, he took out his first patent : ' For improve- 

 ments in the application of a certain material to 



° Josias Christopher Gamble, Chemical Trade 

 Joum. 1890. 



2 40 



various articles of dress, and other articles, that 

 the same may be rendered more elastic' 



In 1 819 Mr. Charles Macintosh, a chemist, 

 entered into a contract with the proprietors of 

 the Glasgow Gas Works to receive for a term 

 of years the tar and ammoniacal water produced at 

 their works, chiefly with the view to the production 

 of ammonia to be employed in the manufacture of 

 cudbear. Whilst making ammonia in this way, 

 Mr. Macintosh discovered that one of the by-pro- 

 ducts, naphtha, would dissolve india-rubber, which 

 was thus converted into water-proof varnish. 

 Macintosh obtained a patent for this process in 

 1823, ^^^ established a small factory in Glasgow. 



I 51 



