Alexander Macomb Chance
Alexander Macomb Chance[1] (1844–1917), chemical manufacturer, was born on 28 June 1844 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, the ninth and youngest child of George Chance, hardware merchant, and his wife, Cornelia Maria, daughter of Arent Schuyler de Peyster of New York. George was a brother of Robert Lucas Chance, who had founded Chance Brothers and Co. Alexander was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and then in Lausanne, subsequently joining the family firm.
1868 Alexander Chance became managing director of the Alkali works at Oldbury in June 1868
1870 Alexander married Florence Hasted Mercer (d. 1903). They had eight children.
1879 He was made a partner of Chance Brothers and Co in 1879.
1890 When the alkali works were converted into the Oldbury Alkali Co Ltd in 1890, Chance was made deputy chairman as well as managing director. He decided that the company would not take part in the creation of the United Alkali Co in 1890.
1898 he amalgamated his firm with another Leblanc soda manufacturer, W. Hunt and Sons of Wednesbury, to form Chance and Hunt Ltd. He was chairman of Chance and Hunt from 1901 until his retirement in June 1912.
1907, four years after his first wife's death, Chance married Agnes Elizabeth, daughter of William Fleming of Inverness. There were no children of this marriage.
Alexander Chance is chiefly remembered for the Chance process for the recovery of sulphur from the Leblanc process which allowed that process to continue to compete with the ammonia–soda Solvay process used by Brunner, Mond and Co for another 30 years.