chemical industry

chemical industry. Chemicals have formed part of the industrial activity of Britain for centuries although the extraction of usable materials or their manufacture only came to be systematically related to scientific principles from the end of the 18th cent. Chemical processes were used in brewing and distillation of alcoholic drinks, in preparing medicines, making concrete, glass, and pottery, making soap, and in cleaning, bleaching, and dyeing textiles. By the later 15th cent. the manufacture of gunpowder had stimulated investigations of the properties of substances for use in warfare or in economic activities. The period called the industrial revolution in Britain saw the systematic exploitation of raw materials for use in the expanding economy. For example, town gas was made during the process of coking coal and it was used from 1808 at Soho in Birmingham to light the factory of Boulton and Watt. Within 20 years a number of gaslight companies were supplying many large towns. The by-products of coke and other chemicals, which began as waste, became of increasing importance as knowledge of their potential in other industries grew. Another example was the development of the lead chamber process which increased supplies of sulphuric acid, a necessity for many of the new industries.

Many heavy industries, such as iron, produced as byproducts inorganic chemicals which, with further processing, found markets. Amongst these were agricultural fertilizers such as basic slag and essential components of products such as washing powders. Output of raw materials such as common salt became of increasing importance and firms led by Lever Brothers formed the Salt Union which lasted for some years, dominating its supply in the late 19th cent. Research and development in these fields of chemical manufacture were undertaken by Brunner and Mond. Their United Alkali Company merged with the explosives company Nobel Industries and the British Dyestuffs Corporation in 1926 to form Imperial Chemical Industries.

Applications of research in organic chemistry during the 19th cent. enabled the development of firms making solvents, synthetic dyes, and new materials. The most important of these were developments from combinations of cellulose which made possible a wide range of new products including parkesine (the first commercial plastic), photographic film, and viscose rayon.

During the 20th cent. the demands for new chemicals continued in order to reduce imports and to cut costs. Thus rayon was invented and marketed as artificial silk. Courtaulds sold this cheaper fibre which was used for clothing and furnishing fabrics. Similarly Lever Brothers and the Dutch company of Jurgens combined in 1929 to form Unilever, whose core businesses had depended on making soap, margarine, and cattle feed, but which then produced pharmaceuticals and food chemicals. Developments in long-chain polymer chemistry during the middle decades of the 20th cent. gave rise to many products: polythene, nylon, and terylene. The raw materials for these products derived from coal or crude oil. Major international oil companies became closely involved in chemical manufacturing and often undertook research to tailor-make some product for special uses such as materials for aircraft tyres.

The most modern chemical industries are those concerned with biochemistry, microbiology, and particularly pharmaceutical research. Associated with household names such as Boots, Fisons, Glaxo, and ICI and Zenaca, they all demand heavy research and development investment.

Ian John Ernest Keil