Year: 1895
Type: book
Abstract: IN the little town of Haddington during last century several generations of Ramsays carried on the craft of dyers.At length one of the family, William by name, the son and grandson of previous Williams who had been content to pursue their calling by the banks of the East Lothian Tyne, determined to push his fortune in a wider sphere.He appears to have been a man of high principle and great energy, wide-minded and good -tempered, with a strong bent towards chemical pursuits, and not a little originality as an investigator.About the year 1785 he went to Glasgow, and became there junior partner in the firm of Arthur and Turnbull, manufacturers of woodspirit and pyroligneous acid.Besides making dyers chemicals and a variety of Prussian blue still known as * Turnbull s Blue, this firm was the first to manu facture chloride of magnesia as a bleaching liquor, and also bichrome.Had William Ramsay patented some of his processes, it was generally believed among his friends that he might have become one of the richest men in the west of Scotland.But he did not consider himself entitled to retain for his own behoof a discovery which, if made widely known, would
Source: Macmillan eBooks
Author: Archibald Geikie
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1585554571