AlMarcS"  5nrm' }  ^nfluence  °f  Pharmacists  on  Chemistry.  201 
of  the  Society  of  Friends,  was  an  early  Philadelphia  druggist  who 
had  completed  his  education  by  spending  two  years  in  Europe,  in 
part  under  the  instruction  of  Dr.  Joseph  Priestly,  the  famous 
English  chemist.  Upon  his  return  he  began,  in  1793,  the  manu- 
facture in  Philadelphia  of  various  chemicals,  and  notably  of  sul- 
phuric acid.  He  had  at  first  a  lead 'chamber  capable  of  producing  300 
carboys  of  acid  per  annum,  and  his  laboratory  at  this  time  was  on 
the  north  side  of  Green  Street,  west  of  Third.  In  1804,  he  estab- 
lished a  new  factory  at  Second  and  Huntingdon  Streets,  near 
Frankford  Road,  Kensington,  but  continued  for  a  time  the  work 
on  Green  Street.  In  1807,  he  built  what  was  for  that  time  quite 
a  large  lead  chamber;  it  was  50  feet  long,  18  feet  wide,  and  18  feet 
high,  and  capable  of  making  nearly  500,000  lbs  of  sulphuric  acid 
annually,  the  price  of  which  was  then  as  high  as  15  cents  per  lb. 
"As  is  well  known,  acid  produced  in  lead  chambers  is  not  the 
Oil  of  Vitriol  of  commerce,  and  the  only  method  known  at  that 
time  to  concentrate  it  to  the  required  strength  was  by  boiling  it  in 
glass  retorts — a  very  precarious  and  dangerous  process.  The  con- 
stant breakage  of  the  glass  largely  increased  the  cost  of  the  con- 
centrated acid  and  the  danger  of  the  work.  To  obviate  this  great 
trouble,  Mr.  Harrison,  in  1814,  introduced  the  use  of  platinum  for 
the  manufacture  of  sulphuric  acid,  for  the  first  time,  at  least  in  this 
country.  In  the  previous  year,  181 3,  Dr.  Eric  Bollman,  a  Dane, 
had  come  to  Philadelphia.  Dr.  Bollman  was  familiar  with  the 
metallurgy  of  platinum,  and  a  highly  scientific  man.  He  brought 
with  him  from  France  Dr,  Wollastron's  method  for  converting  the 
crude  grains  of  platinum  into  bars  and  sheets.  About  the  first 
use  that  Dr.  Bollman  made  of  these  platinum  sheets  was  the  con- 
struction early  in  1814,  of  a  sill  for  the  concentration  of  sulphuric 
acid  for  the  Harrison  works.  It  weighed  700  oz.,  had  a  capacity 
of  25  gal.  and  was  in  continuous  use  for  fifteen  years.  This  early 
application  of  platinum  for  such  purposes  was  highly  characteristic 
of  the  sagacity  and  ingenuity  of  the  American  manufacturer.  At 
the  time  the  use  of  this  rare  metal  was  a  novelty  in  Europe  and 
known  only  to  a  few  persons  and  certainly  entirely  unknown  in 
this  country.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  Mr.  John  Harrison  was 
not  only  the  earliest  successful  manufacturer  of  sulphuric  acid  in 
America,  but  the  first  in  this  country  to  concentrate  it  in  platinum." 
Farr  and  Kunzi  were  next  in  Philadelphia  to  follow  the  lead  of 
Harrison  in  making  sulphuric  acid,  which  it  is  stated  they  did  in 
