Journal of the Society of the Chemical Industry

SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology, Synthetic materials, Textiles

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He early showed an aptitude for chemistry and in 1853 entered the Royal College of Chemistry as a student under A.W.von Hofmann, the first Professor at the College. By the end of his first year, he had carried out his first piece of chemical research, on the action of cyanogen chloride on phenylamine, which he published in the Journal of the Chemical Society (1857). He became honorary assistant to von Hofmann in 1857; three years previously he had set up his own chemical laboratory at home, where he had discovered the first of the azo dyes, aminoazonapththalene. In 1856 Perkin began work on the synthesis of quinine by oxidizing a salt of allyl toluidine with potassium dichromate. Substituting aniline, he obtained a dark-coloured precipitate which proved to possess dyeing properties: Perkin had discovered the first aniline dye. Upon receiving favourable reports on the new material from manufacturers of dyestuffs, especially Pullars of Perth, Perkin resigned from the College and turned to the commercial exploitation of his discovery. This proved highly successful. From 1858, the dye was manufactured at his Greenford Green works as "Aniline Purple" or "Tyrian Purple". It was later to be referred to by the French as mauve. Perkin's discovery led to the development of the modern dyestuffs industry, supplanting dyes from the traditional vegetable sources. In 1869, he introduced two new methods for making the red dye alizarin, in place of the process that involved the use of the madder plant (Rubia tinctorum). In spite of German competition, he dominated the British market until the end of 1873. After eighteen years in chemical industry, Perkin retired and devoted himself entirely to the pure chemical research which he had been pursuing since the 1850s. He eventually contributed ninety papers to the Chemical Society and further papers to other bodies, including the Royal Society. For example, in 1867 he published his synthesis of unsaturated organic acids, known as "Perkin's synthesis". Other papers followed, on the structure of "Aniline Purple". In 1881 Perkin drew attention to the magnetic-rotatory power of some of the substances he had been dealing with. From then on, he devoted particular attention to the application of this phenomenon to the determination of chemical structure.

Perkin won wide recognition for his discoveries and other contributions to chemistry.

The half-centenary of his great discovery was celebrated in July 1906 and later that year he received a knighthood.

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SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology

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Born into a prosperous Jewish merchant family, Mond studied at the Polytechnic in Cassel and then under the distinguished chemists Hermann Kolbe at Marburg and Bunsen at Heidelberg from 1856. In 1859 he began work as an industrial chemist in various works in Germany and Holland. At this time, Mond was pursuing his method for recovering sulphur from the alkali wastes in the Leblanc soda-making process. Mond came to England in 1862 and five years later settled permanently, in partnership with John Hutchinson \& Co. at Widnes, to perfect his process, although complete success eluded him. He became a naturalized British subject in 1880.

In 1872 Mond became acquainted with Ernest Solvay, the Belgian chemist who developed the ammonia-soda process which finally supplanted the Leblanc process. Mond negotiated the English patent rights and set up the first ammoniasoda plant in England at Winnington in Cheshire, in partnership with John Brunner. After overcoming many difficulties by incessant hard work, the process became a financial success and in 1881 Brunner, Mond \& Co. was formed, for a time the largest alkali works in the world. In 1926 the company merged with others to form Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd (ICI). The firm was one of the first to adopt the eight-hour day and to provide model dwellings and playing fields for its employees.

From 1879 Mond took up the production of ammonia and this led to the Mond producer-gas plant, patented in 1883. The process consisted of passing air and steam over coal and coke at a carefully regulated temperature. Ammonia was generated and, at the same time, so was a cheap and useful producer gas. Mond's major discovery followed the observation in 1889 that carbon monoxide could combine with nickel in its ore at around 60°C to form a gaseous compound, nickel carbonyl. This, on heating to a higher temperature, would then decompose to give pure nickel. Mond followed up this unusual way of producing and purifying a metal and by 1892 had succeeded in setting up a pilot plant to perfect a large-scale process and went on to form the Mond Nickel Company.

Apart from being a successful industrialist, Mond was prominent in scientific circles and played a leading role in the setting up of the Society of Chemical Industry in 1881. The success of his operations earned him great wealth, much of which he donated for learned and charitable purposes. He formed a notable collection of pictures which he bequeathed to the National Gallery.

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SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology

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Messel served three years as an apprentice to the chemical manufacturers E.Lucius of Frankfurt before studying chemistry at Zürich, Heidelberg and Tübingen. In 1870 he travelled to England to assist the distinguished chemist Sir Henry Roscoe, but was soon recalled to Germany on the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. After hostilities ceased, Messel returned to London to join the firm of manufacturers of sulphuric acid Dunn, Squire \& Company of Stratford, London. The firm amalgamated with Spencer Chapman, and after Messel became its Managing Director in 1878 it was known as Spencer, Chapman \& Messel Ltd.

Messel's principal contribution to chemical technology was the invention of the contact process for the manufacture of sulphuric acid. Earlier processes for making this essential product, now needed in ever-increasing quantities by the new processes for making dyestuffs, fertilizers and explosives, were based on the oxidation of sulphur dioxide by oxides of nitrogen, developed by Joshua Ward and John Roebuck. Attempts to oxidize the dioxide to the trioxide with the oxygen in the air in the presence of a suitable catalyst had so far failed because the catalyst had become "poisoned" and ineffective; Messel avoided this by using highly purified gases. The contact process produced a concentrated form of sulphuric acid called oleum. Until the outbreak of the First World War, Messel's firm was the principal manufacturer, but then the demand rose sharply, so that other firms had to engage in its manufacture. Production thereby increased from 20,000 to 450,000 tons per year.

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SUBJECT AREA: Synthetic materials, Textiles

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Bevan began his working life as a chemist in a soap works at Runcorn, but later studied chemistry at Owens College, Manchester. It was there that he met and formed a friendship with C.F. Cross, with whom he started to work on cellulose. Bevan moved to a paper mill in Scotland but then went south to London, where he and Cross set up a partnership in 1885 as consulting and analytical chemists. Their work was mainly concerned with the industrial utilization of cellulose, and with the problems of the paper and jute industries. Their joint publication, A Text-book of Paper-making, which first appeared in 1888 and went into several editions, became the standard reference and textbook on the subject. The book has a long introductory chapter on cellulose.

In 1892 Cross, Bevan and Clayton Beadle discovered viscose, or sodium cellulose xanthate, and took out the patent which was to be the foundation of the "viscose rayon" industry. They had their own laboratory at Station Avenue, Kew Gardens, where they carried out much work that eventually resulted in viscose: cellulose, usually in the form of wood pulp, was treated first with caustic soda and then with carbon disulphide to form the xanthate, which was then dissolved in a solution of dilute caustic soda to produce a viscous liquid. After being aged, the viscose was extruded through fine holes in a spinneret and coagulated in a dilute acid to regenerate the cellulose as spinnable fibres. At first there was no suggestion of spinning it into fibre, but the hope was to use it for filaments in incandescent electric light bulbs. The sheen on the fibres suggested their possible use in textiles and the term "artificial silk" was later introduced. Cross and Bevan also discovered the acetate "Celanese", which was cellulose triacetate dissolved in acetone and spun in air, but both inventions needed much development before they could be produced commercially.

In 1892 Bevan turned from cellulose to food and drugs and left the partnership to become Public Analyst to Middlesex County Council, a post he held until his death, although in 1895 he and Cross published their important work Cellulose. He was prominent in the affairs of the Society of Public Analysts and became one of its officials.

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SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology, Synthetic materials, Textiles

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Cross was educated at the universities of London, Zurich and Manchester. It was at Owens College, Manchester, that Cross first met E.J. Bevan and where these two first worked together on the nature of cellulose. After gaining some industrial experience, Cross joined Bevan to set up a partnership in London as analytical and consulting chemists, specializing in the chemistry and technology of cellulose and lignin. They were at the Jodrell laboratory, Kew Gardens, for a time and then set up their own laboratory at Station Avenue, Kew Gardens. In 1888, the first edition of their joint publication A Textbook of Paper-making, appeared. It went into several editions and became the standard reference and textbook on the subject. The long introductory chapter is a discourse on cellulose.

In 1892, Cross, Bevan and Clayton Beadle took out their historic patent on the solution and regeneration of cellulose. The modern artificial-fibre industry stems from this patent. They made their discovery at New Court, Carey Street, London: wood-pulp (or another cheap form of cellulose) was dissolved in a mixture of carbon disulphide and aqueous alkali to produce sodium xanthate. After maturing, it was squirted through fine holes into dilute acid, which set the liquid to give spinnable fibres of "viscose". However, it was many years before the process became a commercial operation, partly because the use of a natural raw material such as wood involved variations in chemical content and each batch might react differently. At first it was thought that viscose might be suitable for incandescent lamp filaments, and C.H.Stearn, a collaborator with Cross, continued to investigate this possibility, but the sheen on the fibres suggested that viscose might be made into artificial silk. The original Viscose Spinning Syndicate was formed in 1894 and a place was rented at Erith in Kent. However, it was not until some skeins of artificial silk (a term to which Cross himself objected) were displayed in Paris that textile manufacturers began to take an interest in it. It was then that Courtaulds decided to investigate this new fibre, although it was not until 1904 that they bought the English patents and developed the first artificial silk that was later called "rayon". Cross was also concerned with the development of viscose films and of cellulose acetate, which became a rival to rayon in the form of "Celanese". He retained his interest in the paper industry and in publishing, in 1895 again collaborating with Bevan and publishing a book on Cellulose and other technical articles. He was a cultured man and a good musician. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1917.

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SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology

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Educated in Dublin, Muspratt was apprenticed at the age of 14 to a wholesale chemist and druggist, with whom he remained for three or four years. Muspratt then went in search of the Napoleonic War and found it first in Spain and finally as Second Officer on a naval vessel. Finding the life unpleasantly harsh, he left his ship off Swansea and returned to Dublin around 1814. Soon afterwards, he received an inheritance, much reduced and delayed by litigation in Chancery. He began manufacturing chemicals in a small way and from 1818 set up as a manufacturer of prussiate of potash. In 1823, Muspratt took advantage of the removal of the salt tax to establish the first plant in England for the largescale manufacture of soda by the Leblanc process. His first soda works was on the outskirts of Liverpool, but when this proved inadequate, he established a larger factory at St Helens, Lancashire, where the raw materials lay close at hand. This district has remained an important centre of the British chemical industry ever since. Although the plant was successful commercially, there were environmental problems. The equipment for condensing the hydrochloric acid gas produced were inadequate and this caused extensive damage to local vegetation, so that Muspratt had to contend with legal action lasting from 1832 to 1850. Eventually Muspratt moved his alkali manufacture to Widnes, which also became a great centre for the chemical industry.

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SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology

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Young's early education took place in the evenings, after the day's work in his father's joinery. From 1830 he studied chemistry at the evening classes in Glasgow given by the distinguished Scottish chemist Thomas Graham (1805–69) and soon afterwards became Graham's assistant. When Graham moved to University College London in 1837, Young accompanied him.

From 1839 he was employed in the chemical industry, first with James Muspratt at St Helens, Lancashire, and from 1843 with Tennant \& Company in Manchester. In 1848 his attention was drawn to an oil seepage in a mine at Alfreton, Derbyshire, of some 300 gallons per day; he set up his own works there to extract an oil that could be used for lighting and lubrication. When this source of oil was exhausted, three years later, Young moved to Lothian in Scotland. By distillation, he extracted oil from the oil-shale deposits there and thus founded the Scottish oil-shale industry: he obtained a high yield of paraffin oil for lighting and heating, and was a pioneer in the use of chemical methods in extracting and treating oil. In 1866 he disposed of his company for no less than £400,000. Young's other activities included measuring the speed of light by Fizeau's method and giving financial support to the expeditions of David Livingstone, who had been a fellow student in Glasgow.

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SUBJECT AREA: Textiles

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Mercer began work at the age of 9 as a bobbinwinder and then a hand-loom weaver. He had no formal education in chemistry but taught himself and revealed remarkable ability in both theoretical and applied aspects of the subject. He became the acknowledged "father of textile chemistry" and the Royal Society elected him Fellow in 1850. His name is remembered in connection with the lustrous "mercerized" cotton which, although not developed commercially until 1890, arose from his discovery, c. 1844, of the effect of caustic soda on cotton linters. He also discovered that cotton could be dissolved in a solution of copper oxide in ammonia, a phenomenon later exploited in the manufacture of artificial silk. As a youth, Mercer experimented at home with dyeing processes and soon acquired sufficient skill to set up as an independent dyer. Most of his working life was, however, spent with the calico-printing firm of Oakenshaw Print Works in which he eventually became a partner, and it was there that most of his experimental work was done. The association was a very appropriate one, for it was a member of this firm's staff who first recognized Mercer's potential talent and took the trouble in his spare time to teach him reading, writing and arithmetic. Mercer developed manganese-bronze colours and researched into catalysis and the ferrocyanides. Among his innovations was the chlorination of wool in order to make it print as easily as cotton. It was many years later that it was realized that this treatment also conferred valuable shrink-resisting qualities. Becoming interested in photochemistry, he devised processes for photographic printing on fabric. Queen Victoria was presented with a handkerchief printed in this way when she visited the Great Exhibition of 1851, of which Mercer was a juror. A photograph of Mercer himself on cloth is preserved in the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. He presented papers to the British Association and was a member of the Chemical Society.

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SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology

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It was intended that Weldon should enter his father's factory in Loughborough, but he decided instead to turn to journalism, which he pursued with varying success in London. His Weldon's Register of Facts and Occurrences in Literature, Science, and Art ran for only four years, from 1860 to 1864, but the fashion magazine Weldon's Journal, which he published with his wife, was more successful. Meanwhile Weldon formed an interest in chemistry, although he had no formal training in that subject. He devoted himself to solving one of the great problems of industrial chemistry at that time. The Leblanc process for the manufacture of soda produced large quantities of hydrochloric acid in gas form. By this time, this by-product was being converted, by oxidation with manganese dioxide, to chlorine, which was much used in the textile and paper industries as a bleaching agent. The manganese ended up as manganese chloride, from which it was difficult to convert back to the oxide, for reuse in treating the hydrochloric acid, and it was an expensive substance. Weldon visited the St Helens district of Lancashire, an important centre for the manufacture of soda, to work on the problem. During the three years from 1866 to 1869, he took out six patents for the regeneration of manganese dioxide by treating the manganese chloride with milk of lime and blowing air through it. The Weldon process was quickly adopted and had a notable economic effect: the price of bleaching powder came down by £6 per ton and production went up fourfold.

By the time of his death, nearly all chlorine works in the world used Weldon's process. The distinguished French chemist J.B.A.Dumas said of the process, when presenting Weldon with a gold medal, "every sheet of paper and every yard of calico has been cheapened throughout the world". Weldon played an active part in the founding of the Society of Chemical Industry.

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SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology

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Mansfield, the son of a country clergyman, was educated privately at first, then at Winchester College and at Cambridge; ill health, which dogged his early years, delayed his graduation until 1846. He was first inclined to medicine, but after settling in London, chemistry seemed to him to offer the true basis of the grand scheme of knowledge he aimed to establish. After completing the chemistry course at the Royal College of Chemistry in London, he followed the suggestion of its first director, A.W.von Hofmann, of investigating the chemistry of coal tar. This work led to a result of great importance for industry by demonstrating the valuable substances that could be extracted from coal tar. Mansfield obtained pure benzene, and toluene by a process for which he was granted a patent in 1848 and published in the Chemical Society's journal the same year The following year he published a pamphlet on the applications of benzene.

Blessed with a private income, Mansfield had no need to support himself by following a regular profession. He was therefore able to spread his brilliant talents in several directions instead of confining them to a single interest. During the period of unrest in 1848, he engaged in social work with a particular concern to improve sanitation. In 1850, a description of a balloon machine in Paris led him to study aeronautics for a while, which bore fruit in an influential book, Aerial Navigation (London, 1851). He then visited Paraguay, making a characteristically thorough and illuminating study of conditions there. Upon his return to London in 1853, Mansfield resumed his chemical studies, especially on salts. He published his results in 1855 as Theory of Salts, his most important contribution to chemical theory.

Mansfield was in the process of preparing specimens of benzene for the Paris Exhibition of 1855 when a naphtha still overflowed and caught fire. In carrying it to a place of safety, Mansfield sustained injuries which unfortunately proved fatal.

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SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology, Metallurgy

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MacArthur served his apprenticeship in the laboratory of Tennant's Tharsis Sulphur and Copper Company in Glasgow. In 1886 he was appointed Technical Manager of the Tennant-run Cassel Gold Extracting Company. By 1888 he was advocating a treatment scheme in which gold was dissolved from crushed rock by a dilute solution of alkali cyanide and then precipitated onto finely divided zinc. During the next few years, with several assistants, he was extremely active in promoting the new gold-extraction technique in various parts of the world. In 1894 significant sums in royalty payments were received, but by 1897 the patents had been successfully contested; henceforth the Cassel Company concentrated on the production and marketing of the essential sodium cyanide reagent.

MacArthur was Managing Director of the Cassel Company from 1892 to 1897; he resigned as a director in December 1905. In 1907 he created the Antimony Recovery Syndicate, and in 1911 he set up a small plant at Runcorn, Cheshire, to produce radium salts. In 1915 this radium-extraction activity was transferred to Balloch, south of Loch Lomond, where it was used until some years after his death.

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1 request.

demanda salarial wage claim

en demanda de asking for

2 demand (economics).

La ley de la oferta y la demanda the law of supply and demand.

3 lawsuit (law).

presentar una demanda contra to take legal action against

demanda de divorcio petition for a divorce

3^rd person singular (él/ella/ello) present indicative of spanish verb: demandar.

2^nd person singular (tú) Imperative of Spanish verb: demandar.

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► nombre femenino

1 (petición) petition, request

2 (pregunta) inquiry

3 COMERCIO (pedido de mercancías) demand

■ este verano la demanda de ventiladores ha aumentado this summer the demand for fans has increased

4 DERECHO lawsuit

\

en demanda de asking for

estimar una demanda to allow a claim

presentar una demanda contra alguien to take legal action against somebody

la ley de la oferta y la demanda the law of supply and demand

* * *

1) demand

2) lawsuit

3) request

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1) (=solicitud) request (de for)

- morir en la demanda

2) esp LAm (=pregunta) inquiry

3) (Com) demand

4) (Teat) call

5) (Elec) load

6) (Jur) action, lawsuit

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1) (Com) demand

2)

a) (Der) lawsuit

b) ( petición) request

* * *

1) (Com) demand

2)

a) (Der) lawsuit

b) ( petición) request

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demanda¹

demanda²

² = appeal, plea, claim, demand.

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A ( Com) demand

la ley de la oferta y la demanda the law of supply and demand

un producto que tiene mucha demanda a product which is in great demand

días de mayor demanda days when demand is greatest

1 ( Der) lawsuit

ha presentado una demanda contra ellos he is suing them, he has brought a lawsuit against them

interponer una demanda to bring a lawsuit, to file suit ( AmE)

(petición): lo siento mucho, pero no puedo acceder a su demanda I am very sorry but I cannot agree to your request

plantearon su demanda al gobierno they presented their demands to the government

se volvió hacia ella en demanda de ayuda he turned to her for help

se manifestaron en demanda de mejores condiciones de trabajo they held a demonstration to demand o they demonstrated for better working conditions

me miró, como en demanda de una explicación she looked at me, as if asking for an explanation

C ( liter)

(empresa): morir or perecer en la demanda to die o ( frml) perish in the attempt

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3ª persona singular (él/ella/usted) presente indicativo

2ª persona singular (tú) imperativo

◊ tiene mucha demanda it's in great demand

a) (Der) lawsuit;

◊ presentar una demanda contra algn to bring a lawsuit against sb

b) ( petición) request;

◊ accedí a su demanda I agreed to his request

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demanda nf

1. [petición] request;

atender las demandas de los trabajadores to respond to the workers' demands;

en demanda de asking for;

irán a la huelga en demanda de una mejora salarial they will go on strike in support of their demands for better pay

demanda de empleo [solicitud] job application;

demanda de extradición extradition request;

demanda salarial wage claim

2. [en economía] demand;

hay mucha demanda de informáticos there is a great demand for computer specialists;

ha crecido la demanda de productos reciclables there has been an increase in demand for recyclable products;

la demanda de trabajo en el sector turístico es muy alta jobs in the tourist industry are in high demand;

la oferta y la demanda supply and demand

3. [en derecho] lawsuit;

interponer o [m5] presentar una demanda contra to take legal action against;

presenté una demanda contra la constructora por daños y perjuicios I sued the builders for damages;

una demanda por difamación a libel suit

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1 demand (de for);

en demanda de (asking) for

2 COM demand;

tener mucha demanda be very popular;

tiene poca demanda there’s not much demand for it, it’s not very popular

3 JUR lawsuit, claim;

presentar o

interponer una demanda contra alguien take legal action against s.o.

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demanda nf

1) : demand

la oferta y la demanda: supply and demand

2) : petition, request

3) : lawsuit

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demanda n

1. (de productos) demand

2. (acción judicial) lawsuit

1) Парфюмерия: Стандарты Японии по косметическим ингредиентам

2) Полимеры: Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry