declined from some £13 per ton to little more than £4 per ton. The LeBlanc soda manufacturers had to dispose of their soda at & logs and to make up the loss from the sale of bleaching powder. The Bleaching Powder Association was then formed in England as an organ of the LeBlanc soda manufacturers to maintain the market price of bleaching powder. In 1890 this culminated in a then colossal combine of practically all LeBlanc soda interests in Great Britain into one company known as The United Alkali Co., Ltd., consisting of forty-eight works (45 chemical and 3 salt works), of which 42 were in England, 4 in Scotland and one each in Ireland and Wales. From this, some idea can be obtained as to how deadly the struggle was between the new and the old processes. Heretofore, there had been a certain definite balance between the quantities of soda and bleaching powder produced. With the advent of the ammonia soda process, only the alkali was produced without its counterpart in chlorine. This balance was disturbed, and it was difficult for LeBlanc soda manufacturers to adjust themselves to meet the new situation.
Despite this huge combine, the position of LeBlanc soda was still untenable. To avoid direct competition, The United Alkali Co. turned its attention to the manufacture of other chemicals, such as sulfuric acid, muriatic acid, bleaching powder, etc., starting from pyrites as raw material. Meanwhile, Brunner, Mond & Co. grew to a position of mastery in the soda trade of England. Just as James Muspratt took over LeBlanc's process and developed the LeBlanc soda industry to the greatest benefit of England, so Ludwig Mond introduced Solvay's process and developed the ammonia soda industry to such an extent that Brunner, Mond & Co. (at present merged into Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd.) controls the soda market not only in England but also in many parts of the world, through the export of its large surplus of soda ash.
While the LeBlanc process for soda ash was forced to decline, its use for caustic soda manufacture possessed some advantages. First, the soda liquor from the lixiviating vats could be used directly for causticizetion, and secondly, the lye as obtained already contained as much as 20 per cent of the causticity of the total alkali present, so that only 80 per cent of the normal amount of lime was required for causticization. With the advent of the electrolytic process, however, another serious blow was dealt to the LeBlanc process. Here in one operation were obtained chlorine and caustic soda-and these in a pure and concentrated form-while these two main products of the LeBlanc process were obtained only after a considerable number of intricate steps.
From 1890 on, the LeBlanc process suffered a rapid decline. The World War (1914-1918) found the position of the LeBlanc process for soda manufacture still untenable. Because of the demand for sulfuric acid for the manufacture of munitions, and because of the threatening shortage of coal, the British Government during the War imposed restrictions on the use of these important raw materials. The LeBlanc soda works was hard hit, and in 1915-1916 The United Alkali Co. practically stopped making soda by this process. The Company then became engaged instead
