Talk:Leblanc process

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[edit] Citations

This article needs more citations. One problem with the Kiefer reference I added, which is certainly helpful, is that it doesn't use any citations itself. So it's difficult to verify the surprising fact that the last Leblanc process plant closed in the 1920s, for example.EAS 11:02, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Interesting article that addresses exactly the point about the slow transition from Leblanc to Solvay: Howells, John: "The Response of Old Technology Incumbents to Technological Competition - Does the Sailing Ship Effect Exist?," Journal of Management Studies, No 7, vol 39, pp 887-906, 2002. It also provides a reference that apparently agrees with the Kiefer assertion about the 1920s closing.EAS 11:45, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

A good book on this topic is Fred Aftalion's A History of the International Chemical Industry, which I used to expand the article a bit. Aftalion gives a date of the first UK Leblanc plant as 1816, not 1807 as the article said before (uncited), so I altered that. It seems odd to us today that the Solvay process didn't take hold sooner, but Aftalion makes it clear that ammonia was not a cheap commodity as it is today. The production of chlorine from the HCl helped the process struggle on a bit longer, but the Haber process and the chloralkali process together sounded the death knell. On page 107, Aftalion states that by 1915 British Leblanc soda production had dwindled to a mere 50,000 tons, that seems to be consistent with the last plant closing in 1920. Walkerma 02:28, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Potassium Carbonate usage

I have modified my text in view of the fact that my information was admittedly a bit thin. My 1945 Brittanica says that "most commercial K2CO3" was made by Leblanc process, but the article can't be dated. A 1964 textbook (Morris & Cooper Intermediate In organic Chemistry, Cassell & Co) says "K2CO3 is manufactured by 1) LP, 2) electrolytic methods". Again, one can't be sure whether the process was in fact out of use by 1964. 1970s textbooks (shows my age) don't mention LP. None of this is worth citing. I put in the original edit because the article seems to ignore the fact that LP was (and is? BaS, etc) used for products other than Na2CO3. Citation is not required in the case of "common knowledge". I guess most of the rest of the article comes into this category. I will re-expand it if I stumble across better info. . . .LinguisticDemographer 11:47, 6 March 2007 (UTC)