A HISTORY OF THE SODA MANUFACTURE. 247 



growing on the sea coast, the chief localities for these being Alicant, in 

 Spain, the islands of Sicily and Teueriffe, and our own coasts of Scot- 

 land and Ireland. There was also imported into this country, as well 

 as into France, from Eussia and America, a large quantity of potash, 

 and this alkali fyas then used for many purposes for which soda is now 

 exclusively employed ; and it may be noticed, that such a remarkable 

 change has been effected by the cheap production of soda, that we now 

 export large supplies of this alkali to those countries from which we 

 formerly imported alkali in the form of potash. 



One of the first effects of the war, consequent upon the French 

 Revolution, was to cut off all supplies of alkali from other countries 

 into France, and the progress of those important manufactures depen- 

 dent on the use of alkali having been thus impeded, the Conventional 

 Government of the French Republic issued an appeal to the chemists of 

 their country in the following terms : — 



" Considering that the Republic ought to extend the energy of liberty 

 to all the objects which are useful in the arts of first necessity — free 

 itself from all commercial dependence — and draw from its own sources 

 all the materials deposited therein by nature, so as to render vain the 

 efforts and the hatred of despots ; and should place equally in requisi- 

 tion for the general service all industrial inventions aud productions of 

 the soil, it is commanded that all citizens who have commenced establish- 

 ments, or who have obtained patents for the extraction of soda from 

 common salt, shall make known, to the Convention the locality of 

 these establishments, the quantity of soda now supplied by them, the 

 quantity they can hereafter supply, and the period at which the in- 

 creased supplies can be rendered." 



A commission was appointed in the first year of the French Republic, 

 consisting of Citizens Lelievre, Pelletier D'Arcet, and Giroud, and they 

 made their report in the following year, 1794. This report gave a 

 summary of thirteen different processes, of which particulars had been 

 submitted to the Commission, six of these commencing with the produc- 

 tion of sulphate of soda by the decomposition of salt. The preference 

 in the judgment of the Commission was given to the Operations devised 

 by " un Pharmacien " (a term equivalent to our apothecary or druggist), 

 namely, Le Blanc, who had already erected a soda manufactory near 

 Paris, in conjunction with two of his countrymen, named Dize and 

 Shee. 



It has been thought generally, that, the invention of Le Blanc's pro- 

 cess was a consequence of the appeal made to their countrymen by the 

 French Convention. It will be seen from the following particulars that 

 this notion is erroneous. The Commissioners say in their report : — 

 " Citizens Le Blanc, Diz6 and Shee (co-partners), were the first who 

 submitted to us particulars of their processes ; and this was done with a 

 noble devotion to the public good. Their establishment had been 

 formed some time previously at Frangiade ; but the consequences of the 



