the soda industry, like many other industries, could not be developed to any extent. In England it had a better chance, although tho Napoleonic wars left England impoverished like many other European countries. From the time when peace was declared at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, she had to levy a very heavy tax of £30 per ton on salt. Under this tax, it would have been impossible for her soda industry to exist. After eight years, however, the British government wisely decided to repeal the law, and the year 1823 saw the tax removed. From this time on, the soda industry went ahead by leaps and bounds quite in contrast to the conditions in France. James Muspratt (1793-1886), an Irishman, who had served as an apprentice in a fine-chemical factory, first started a sulfuric acid industry at Liverpool in 1822 and then, taking advantage of the tax exemption on salt, built a LeBlanc soda plant there in 1823. The undertaking proved profitable. After enlarging his plant to its fullest extent, he built a second LeBlanc soda plant at Newton, which was later removed to Widnes, and subsequently a third LeBlanc soda plant at Flint. Mean- while other LeBlanc soda plants also sprang up at Widnes, St. Helens, Runcorn, the Tyne, Glasgow, and in other districts, where the necessary raw materials, sulfur, salt, limestone and coal, were available in abundance. Thus, the great development of the LeBlanc soda industry in Great Britain was made possible by the repeal of the salt tax in 1823.
The period froni 1825 to 1890 saw the LeBlanc process occupying a leading position. All artificial soda was made, and made in large quantities, by this process. In 1861 Ernest Solvay (1838-1922) rediscovered and perfected an old process now known as the ammonia soda process. In 1863 with his brother Alfred he constructed a works at Couillet, Belgium, near Charleroi, which began to operate in 1865, using this process. Only after encountering & series of serious difficulties, which threatened to bring failure to his undertaking, did he finally make a success of it. The works was gradually improved, enlarged, and remodelled. In 1872 the capacity was brought up to 10 tons of soda Ash a day, which proved to the world the success of his process beyond any doubt. In that year he designed a large soda plant at Dombasle near Nancy, France, on scale considered quite gigantic at that time. Dr. Ludwig Mond, an old LeBlanc soda man, came over to visit Solvay, with the result that the latter's process was allowed to be introduced in England. Brunner, Mond & Co. was then formed and the first works erected at Winnington, near Northwich, England, in 1874.
Like the LeBlanc soda industry, the ammonia soda industry developed by leaps and bounds. The new soda industry, however, had not only to meet many difficulties inherent in its operation but also to meet competition from the well-established LeBlanc soda process. However, it was able to hold its own in the face of competition, because of the simplicity of raw materials needed, of the low cost of production, and of the very high purity of the soda ash produced. From about 1885 on, the curve of LeBlanc soda production began to take a downward course as the result of competition from the new process. The price of soda ash
