*nMttchimTm'}Influence  °f  P^armac^sts  on  Chemistry.  205 
within  a  year,  Mr.  Rosengarten  continued  alone,  later  taking  in  a 
Mr.  Dennis.  When  this  partner  withdrew  some  twenty  years  later, 
the  firm  became  Rosengarten  &  Sons,  which  business  continued 
until  the  formation  of  the  present  combination  with  the  other  large 
Philadelphia  manufacturer  of  medicinal  chemicals,  Powers  & 
Weightman. 
Farr  &  Kunzi  began  the  manufacture  of  chemicals  about  1818. 
,  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  firm  for  some  time.  The  new  firm  name  was  John  Farr  &  Co. 
This  was  later  changed  to  Farr,  Powers  &  Weightman,  and  on  the 
death  of  the  senior  partner  in  1841,  the  firm  name  was  again 
changed;  this  time  to  the  title — Powers  &  Weightman,  by  which  it 
was  so  long  known  throughout  the  entire  country. 
These  two  firms,  in  1905,  united  under  the  name  of  the 
Powers-Weightman-Rosengarten  Co.,  and  continue  as  probably  the 
best-known  manufacturers  of  general  and  medicinal  chemicals  in 
the  United  States. 
The  history  of  the  commercial  production  of  pure  glycerin 
is  also  of  interest  in  this  account  of  Philadelphia's  chemical  achieve- 
ments. 
The  late  Robert  Shoemaker,  while  making  medicinal  plaster, 
had  his  attention  directed  by  Professor  Wm.  Procter  to  the  residuum 
liquid  which  was  obtained.  From  this  he  prepared  the  first  glyc- 
erin made  in  this  city,  if  not  in  America,  in  1846,  and  this  was 
exhibited  by  Professor  Procter  to  his  class  at  the  Philadelphia 
College  of  Pharmacy  at  that  time.  Mr.  Shoemaker  manufactured 
it  for  sale,  according  to  his  statement,  for  some  years  in  connection 
with  the  manufacture  of  lead  plaster. 
The  later  development  of  the  refining  of  waste  lyes  containing 
glycerin  was  also  a  Philadelphia  achievement  and  was  worked 
out  by  the  late  Henry  Bower.  By  the  courtesy  of  his  son,  Mr.  W. 
H.  Bower,  I  am  allowed  to  quote  from  a  private  letter,  which  gives 
the  account  of  his  work,  in  his  own  words : 
"Quite  early  in  life,  say  in  1857,  my  attention  was  keenly  directed  to 
some  mode  of  purifying  these  waste  liquors  of  the  stearine  candle  factories, 
and  in  that  year  I  could  have  purchased  the  entire  product  of  crude  glycerine 
