John Roebuck

John Roebuck 1718-94, English physician, chemist, and inventor. He acted as a chemical consultant to local industries in Birmingham and invented the lead chamber process of manufacturing sulfuric acid and a process for producing malleable iron. He was a friend and patron of English engineer James Watt and at one time held a large interest in Watt's steam engine.

Roebuck, John (1718–94). An entrepreneur and inventor, Roebuck was born in Sheffield, studied in Edinburgh, and took a medical degree at Leiden. His early efforts in Birmingham led to a partnership with Samuel Garbett to produce sulphuric acid. He then set up a factory at Prestonpans to make sulphuric acid, then pottery, and finally cast iron. In 1760 he opened the Carron ironworks near Stirling, using pit-coal rather than charcoal, and specializing in ordnance. For many years Carron was the largest British foundry. Roebuck's later venture into coal-mining proved disastrous, despite collaboration with James Watt to try to prevent flooding. His grandson was the radical MP John Arthur Roebuck.

J. A. Cannon

Roebuck, John Arthur (1801–79). Radical MP for Bath (1832–7, 1841–7) and Sheffield (1849–68, 1874–9). Born in Madras and qualified as a barrister, Roebuck was nicknamed ‘Tear 'Em’ for his fierce attacks on aristocracy, privilege, and inefficiency. As a Benthamite and friend of J. S. Mill, Roebuck proposed a system of state education, supported the New Poor Law, and helped Lovett draft the Charter. In 1855 he moved for a committee of inquiry into the conduct of the Crimean War, which resulted in the fall of Aberdeen's government. From the exposure of military inefficiency, Roebuck went on to campaign for administrative (civil service) reform.