128 CHEMICAL MANUFACTURES ON THE TYNE. 



process tried was founded on the neutral decomposition of common salt 

 and sulphate of potash. This operation was regularly carried on by Mr. 

 Losh and Mr. Doubleday, whenever the price of the two potash salts 

 allowed a profit being made, and the chloride of potassium was as regu- 

 larly sold to the Yorkshire alum makers. Mr. Losh resided in Paris in 

 1791, where he acquired a knowledge of chemistry, and soon after his 

 return home a company was formed to manufacture soda at Walker. 

 The original partners were Lords Dundas and Dundonald, Messrs. 

 Aubany, and John Surtees, and John and William Losh. They obtained 

 their salt from a brine-spring found in a coal pit at Walker, and the 

 heavy duty upon salt at that date, which was 36Z. per ton, was avoided 

 by evaporating together a concentrated solution of the*brine-spring and 

 sulphuric acid, thus forming sulphate of soda, and avoiding making salt. 

 Another plan adopted by Mr. Losh to avoid the duty was to add ground 

 coke or ashes to the concentrating salt pan before the salt was formed, 

 and use it in this damaged condition for the manufacture of sulphate of 

 soda. This was about the year 1796 ; Messrs. Doubleday and Easterby, 

 in 1808, commenced making sulphate of soda by decomposing the waste 

 salts from the soap-boilers, which consisted chiefly of common salt and 

 some sulphate of soda. Their chief supply was obtained from the 

 Messrs. Jaiuieson and other soap-boilers at Leith. They purchased their 

 sulphuric acid at first, but between 1809 and 1810, they got the plans of 

 chambers from Messrs. Tennants, of Glasgow, and erected the first 

 chamber on the Tyne at Bill Quay. They imported the first cargo from 

 Sicily about the same time, and its arrival in the river excited great 

 attention. At first the Government returned them the import duty on 

 the sulphur, which was used in making acid, and the present Mr. 

 Doubleday remembers having received, at the end of the year, as much 

 as 1,500/. This however only lasted some three or four years, when 

 the duty was repealed. This firm, then trading under the name of 

 Doubleday and Easterby, also erected the first platina retort for making 

 rectified vitrol, and which cost them 700Z., and before long they had 

 three retorts in operation. The alkali which they made was used 

 in the crude form in the manufacture of soap, in which they 

 were also engaged. In 1816, after the conclusion of peace, Mr. Losh 

 returned to Paris, where he learned the details of the present plan of 

 decomposing sulphate of soda, winch he immediately introduced in his 

 works at Walker, and thus may be said to have been the father of the 

 modern alkali trade in this country. Mr. Doubleday gave the plans of 

 his chamber, furnaces, &c, to the Messrs. Cookson when they 

 commenced their alkali works at South Shields, and these gentlemen 

 made Wright, Mr. Doubleday's foreman, a present of a silver tea service 

 in consideration of the services he had rendered. This trade has been 

 developed in an extraordinary manner in this locality, where about 47 

 per cent, of the whole produce of the United Kingdom is now manufac- 

 tured. The peculiar advantages of the district are also being recognised 



