Chemicals & Hazardous Process Industry

1736

Joshua Ward developed a process for the large-scale production of sulfuric acid

The pharmacist Joshua Ward devised a method of heating sulfur with saltpetre so that it oxidised and combined with water. It was the first practical production of sulphuric acid at scale, and marks an early step in the birth of the heavy chemical industry.

1749

John Roebuck and Samuel Garbett established a lead-chamber sulfuric acid factory at Prestonpans

Roebuck and Garbett built the first large-scale sulfuric acid works in Scotland, using leaden condensing chambers. The lead chamber process made bulk acid production economic and underpinned the subsequent heavy chemicals sector.

1791

Nicolas Leblanc patented the Leblanc process for making alkali from sea salt

Responding to a French Academy of Sciences prize for producing alkali from sodium chloride, Leblanc patented his process and built a plant at Saint-Denis. Soda ash production on this basis became the backbone of the early inorganic chemical industry, though Leblanc was denied his prize money because of the French Revolution.

1799

Charles Tennant discovered bleaching powder and opened the St Rollox Chemical Works

Tennant made bleaching powder by reacting chlorine with dry slaked lime, replacing slow natural bleaching of cloth. His works north of Glasgow grew from 52 tons in 1799 to nearly 10,000 tons five years later, creating the first great chemical industrial enterprise.

1816

William Losh built Britain's first soda works on the River Tyne

The Losh, Wilson and Bell works introduced Leblanc soda manufacture to Britain. It remained small until salt production tariffs were repealed in 1824, after which the British soda industry expanded rapidly.

1822

Bonnington Chemical Works began processing coal tar and ammoniacal liquor into chemical products

At Edinburgh, residues from coal gas manufacture were converted into naphtha, pitch oil, pitch, lampblack and sal ammoniac. This marked the start of manufacturing chemical products from fossil fuels at scale, later extended to ammonium sulphate fertiliser, asphalt and coke.

1824

Britain repealed salt production tariffs, unlocking soda industry expansion

Heavy tariffs on salt had constrained British alkali manufacture. Their repeal allowed rapid growth, with James Muspratt's Liverpool works and Charles Tennant's Glasgow complex becoming the largest chemical production centres anywhere.

1840s

Sir John Lawes established works for manufacturing superphosphate of lime fertiliser

Lawes pioneered artificial manufactured fertiliser at his purpose-built Rothamsted Research facility and built large works near London. This founded the agricultural chemicals branch of the industry.

1840s

Charles Goodyear and Thomas Hancock patented processes for the vulcanization of rubber

Goodyear in the United States and Hancock in England independently patented vulcanisation. The process created an industrial materials sector dependent on chemical processing.

19th century

William Henry Perkin discovered the first synthetic dye

Perkin partly transformed aniline into a crude mixture that yielded an intense purple substance when extracted with alcohol, and also developed the first synthetic perfumes. Synthetic dyes required laboratory discoveries to be translated into large-scale industrial processes and are considered among the first science-based industries.

19th century

Herbert Henry Dow used electrochemistry to produce chemicals from brine

Dow's commercial success in extracting chemicals from brine by electrochemical means helped promote the growth of the United States chemical industry during the late nineteenth-century expansion.

2000

US chemical industry raised top-100 chemical output to 502 million tons

Aggregate production volume of the top 100 chemicals in the United States rose from 397 million tons in 1990 to 502 million tons in 2000. The leading products were sulfuric acid, nitrogen, ethylene and oxygen.

1991–2011

European chemical industry saw sales grow from 295 to 539 billion euros

Over two decades European chemical sales nearly doubled, a picture of constant growth. Since 2000 the chemical sector alone has represented two-thirds of the entire EU manufacturing trade surplus.

1920s

Chemical firms consolidated into large conglomerates such as IG Farben and ICI

IG Farben in Germany, Rhône-Poulenc in France and Imperial Chemical Industries in Britain were formed, while DuPont became a major American chemicals firm in the early 20th century. This consolidation created the integrated multinational structure of the modern chemical industry.

1913

German chemical industry came to produce almost 90% of world dyestuffs

BASF, Bayer and Hoechst between them produced several hundred dyes, exporting about 80% of output. German dye laboratories were also where industrial research and development practices were first established in the late 19th century.

1885

William and James Lever started industrial soap production from vegetable oils in Lancashire

The brothers based their works on a modern chemical process invented by William Hough Watson using glycerin and vegetable oils. It demonstrated the scaling of chemical processing into mass consumer goods.

1874

Ludwig Mond and John Brunner formed Brunner, Mond & Co. and built a Solvay plant at Winnington

Mond acquired rights to the Solvay process and with Brunner established British production. Refinements he made between 1873 and 1880 removed byproducts inhibiting sodium carbonate production, making the process a commercial success.

1870s

British soda industry produced 200,000 tons annually, exceeding all other nations combined

By the 1870s British soda output surpassed the rest of the world put together. This marked Britain's leadership in the heavy chemical industry before German and American ascendancy.

1863

Britain passed one of the first pieces of environmental legislation on alkali works

Large quantities of alkaline waste vented from soda manufacture provoked legislation providing for close inspection of factories and heavy fines for exceeding pollution limits. It established regulatory oversight of hazardous chemical production and spurred methods to make useful byproducts from alkali waste.

1861

Ernest Solvay developed the Solvay process for soda ash

The Belgian industrial chemist's ammonia-soda route proved more economical and less polluting than the Leblanc method. Solvay and his brother Alfred built a plant at Charleroi in 1864 and a larger one at Nancy in 1874, after which the process spread widely.

1856

Alexander Parkes patented Parkesine, the first plastic

The English metallurgist patented a celluloid based on nitrocellulose treated with various solvents. Exhibited at the 1862 London International Exhibition, it anticipated many modern aesthetic and utility uses of plastics.