The lead chamber process was an industrial method used to produce sulfuric acid in large quantities. It has been largely supplanted by the contact process.
In 1746 in Birmingham, England, John Roebuck began producing sulfuric acid in lead-lined chambers, which were stronger, less expensive, and could be made much larger than the glass containers which had been used previously. This allowed the effective industrialization of sulfuric acid production and with several refinements, this process remained the standard method of production for almost two centuries. So robust was the process that as late as 1946, the chamber process accounted for 25% of sulfuric acid manufactured.
Read more about Lead Chamber Process: The Process, Chemistry, Further Reading
Famous quotes containing the words lead, chamber and/or process:
“Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”
—Bible: New Testament Jesus, in Matthew, 15:14.
Referring to the Pharisees.
“My weary limbs are scarcely stretched for repose, before red dawn peeps into my chamber window, and the birds in the whispering leaves over the roof, apprise me by their sweetest notes that another day of toil awaits me. I arise, the harness is hastily adjusted and once more I step upon the tread-mill.”
—“E. B.,” U.S. farmer. As quoted in Feminine Ingenuity, by Anne L. MacDonald (1992)
“When you start with a portrait and search for a pure form, a clear volume, through successive eliminations, you arrive inevitably at the egg. Likewise, starting with the egg and following the same process in reverse, one finishes with the portrait.”
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)