Rumney's Chemical Works
of Ardwick, Manchester
c.1845 Robert Rumney (1812-72), a Manchester brewer, and WiIliam Hadfield established the Ardwick Chemical Works in a factory that had once produced chemical apparatus and firebricks. The firm made products for the local calico-printing industry, including a rather concentrated colouring material known as garancine, obtained by digesting madder root with cold sulphuric acid.
1850s Hadfield left the partnership
Edmund Potter, a neighbouring calico-printer, showed how to produce a beautiful new purple colour, murexide (the mono-ammonium salt of purpuric acid), by treating uric acid successively with nitric acid and ammonia.
1854 Rumnery exploited Potter's discovery commercially, making use of the recently available Peruvian guano as the source of uric acid.
At peak Rumney produced 12 cwt. of the dyestuff each week, the dye being widely used for silk and wool.
Rumney prospered and became an influential figure in local affairs and an alderman of the city.
1872 Rumney died. After his death the works still carried his name into the 1880s, as did a chemical manure works at West Gorton, Manchester, in 1883.
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.