Solvay Process Company - History

History

The Solvay Process Company was a joint venture between the inventing chemists, Belgians Ernest and Alfred Solvay, who owned the patent rights to the Solvay process, and Americans William B. Cogswell (1834–1921) and Rowland Hazard II (1829–1898). Cogswell, a former resident of Syracuse, New York, was an engineer who was familiar with the natural resources of Central New York that would be available for use in process. He was employed as a mining engineer by one of the Hazard family businesses at the time. Knowing that American industry was importing soda ash from Europe, Cogswell envisioned utilizing the process in America, and in Solvay, New York.

After several refusals, Cogswell finally secured American rights to the Solvay process. He required capital to build a production facility, which he obtained from Roland Hazard II, scion of an old Rhode Island family. Roland Hazard was the major American investor in the company and its first president. His son, Frederick Rowland Hazard, was an initial officer and subsequently became president. William B. Cogswell served as vice-president. Frederick's brother Rowland G. Hazard II (1855–1918) followed Cogswell as vice-president, serving many years in that role.

The Solvay brothers in Belgium had a one-third interest in the company. To produce soda ash, the Solvay process requires salt brine and limestone, both of which were readily secured in this area. Wells in the town of Tully provided salt brine, pumped through a pipeline to Solvay. A remarkable elevated conveyor, with buckets suspended from a cable loop, passed by means of a tunnel through a hill to deliver stone from company quarries at Split Rock, in the Town of Onondaga, about four miles to the south.

The Erie Canal passed through the Solvay Process plant, providing water transport, as did subsequently Onondaga Lake, connected to the New York State canal system. The main line of the New York Central Railroad also passed through company property, providing transport.

The village grew around the Solvay Process plant. The Church and Dwight Company, producer of "Arm and Hammer Baking Soda," which used material from the Solvay Process, built a production facility nearby.