Ajania?y  ^igi™" }    Chemical  Manufacturing  in  Philadelphia.  33 
cles,  but  their  operations  during  the  first  ten  years  of  their  business  were  on 
a  scale  which  in  this  day  would  be  considered  quite  small. 
Yellow  Prussiat'e  of  Potash  was  first  made  by  them  in  1834  (that  being 
so  far  as  known  the  first  production  of  the  article  in  America) ,  but  the 
demand  was  very  small,  only  472  pounds  being  absorbed  by  the  market  in 
that  year.  In  1835  the  sales  increased  to  6,443  pounds,  but  it  was  not  until 
1843  that  the  demand  became  large,  the  sales  amounting  in  that  year  to 
69,470  pounds  and  rapidly  increasing  in  the  next  two  years,  the  sales  in  1845 
being  207,522  pounds. 
The  high  price,  over  fifty  cents  per  pound,  and  the  keen  demand  of 
course  resulted  in  active  competition,  and  the  market  for  many  years  was 
over-supplied. 
In  the  year  1846  Carter  and  Scattergood  began  to  produce  Red  Prussiate 
of  Potash,  being  the  first  in  America.  This  was  a  highly  profitable  branch 
of  the  business  until  the  introduction  of  coal-tar  dyes,  as  substitutes  for 
prussiate  colors  on  woolen  goods,  gradually  displaced  it  in  the  most  important 
field  of  consumption.  Except  for  the  manufacture  of  Blue-Print  Paper, 
there  is  now  very  little  demand  for  it. 
Potash  and  ammonia  alums  were  first  made  in  Philadelphia  by 
Chas.  Lennig  in  1837  and  by  Harrison  Bros,  in  1840. 
Coming  now  to  the  early  manufacture  of  medicinal  or  pharma- 
ceutical chemicals  which  has  long  made  Philadelphia  famous,  we 
find  that  George  D.  Rosengarten  and  Charles  Zeitler  as  Rosengar- 
ten  &  Zeitler  began  the  manufacture  of  chemicals  in  St.  John  Street, 
Philadelphia,  about  1822.  They  were  the  first  to  manufacture  the 
alkaloids  of  cinchona  and  opium  in  this  country,  having  begun  the 
manufacture  of  sulphate  of  quinine  in  1823,  of  sulphate  of  morphia 
in  1832,  and  strychnine  in  1834.  The  salts  of  quinine  were  also 
manufactured  by  John  Farr  in  1825. 
These  two  firms  and  their  successors  have  had  much  to  do  with 
the  establishment  of  Philadelphia  as  a  chemical  manufacturing  cen- 
ter. After  the  withdrawal  of  Mr.  Zeitler,  which  took  place  within 
a  year,  Mr.  Rosengarten  continued  alone,  later  taking  in  a  Mr.  Den- 
nis. When  this  partner  withdrew  some  twenty  years  later,  the  firm 
became  Rosengarten  &  Sons,  which  business  continued  until  the  for- 
mation of  the  present  combination  with  the  other  large  Philadelphia 
manufacturer  of  medicinal  chemicals,  Powers  &  Weightman. 
"  Farr  &  Kunzi  began  the  manufacture  of  chemicals  about  181 8. 
Abraham  Kunzi,  a  Swiss  by  birth,  retired  in  1838,  and  the  senior 
partner,  John  Farr,  who  had  been  born  and  brought  up  in  England, 
associated  with  himself  Thomas  H.  Powers  and  William  Weight- 
man,  two  young  Philadelphians,  who  had  been  in  the  employ  of  the 
