Electrolytic Alkali Co
of Middlewich, Cheshire.
James Hargreaves with Thomas Bird developed a process for the electrolysis of brine using asbestos diaphragms.
1893 the General Electrolytic Patent Co was established to develop this process.
1895 Bird died
1899 the Electrolytic Alkali Co was set up at Middlewich, with Hargreaves as a director and his son, Luke, as general manager. Hargreaves cells were also built in France, Norway and USA.[1]
1899 The company was registered on 30 November, to acquire from the General Electrolytic Patent Co, certain patents for the United Kingdom for the manufacture by electrolysis of alkali, chlorine, bleaching powder and other products. [2]
1901 A works was built on a 73-acre site at Cledford Bridge, near Middlewich, where production began in 1901.
1907 Operator of the Hargreaves Bird diaphragm cell at Middlewich[3]
1913 Company in liquidation.[4]
1914 The company was reorganised as Electro-Bleach and By-Products Ltd
1920 The company was acquired by Brunner, Mond and Co.
1926 Became part of ICI
1928 The works were closed because the process was judged obsolete.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Archives of the British chemical industry, 1750-1914: a handlist. By Peter J. T. Morris and Colin A. Russell. Edited by John Graham Smith. 1988.