Henry Davis Pochin
Henry Davis Pochin (1824-1895) was an English industrial chemist.
1824 Born, the son of a yeoman farmer in Leicestershire.
He served an apprenticeship to James Woolley (1811–1858), a manufacturing chemist in Manchester, and in course of time became a partner with him and Mr Halliday in A. P. Halliday and Co, manufacturing chemists of Salford
1855 Patent to Henry Davis Pochin, of Salford, of the firm of Halliday, Pochin, and Co., Manufacturing Chemists, for the invention of "improvements in the treatment of certain compounds of alumina, and the application of the same in printing, dyeing, tawing, paper making, and such like purposes."
1857 Patent with James Woolley, both Manufacturing Chemists, on "improvements in the manufacture of gum or dextrine from amylaceous substances."
Woolley died in 1858 and Pochin kept a manuscript diary of the illness, treatment and death of his partner. This diary is preserved in the Wellcome Trust Library. On Woolley’s death Pochin became the sole proprietor.
1858 Patent application by Edward Hunt and Henry Davis Pochin, both of Salford, in the county of Lancaster, Chemists, of the invention of "improvements in the treatment and application of resins and resinous substances."[1]
1859 Patent application by Edward Hunt and Henry Davis Pochin, both of Salford, in the county of Lancaster, Chemists, for the invention of " improved resin and resinous substances."[2]
1862 Patent to Henry Davis Pochin, of Salford, in the county of Lancaster, Manufacturing Chemist, for the invention of "improvements in the manufacture of rosin, soap, or size."
Pochin is noted for two important inventions. Firstly, he developed a process for the clarification of rosin, a brown substance used to make soap, by passing steam through it so that after distillation it came out white, thus enabling the production of white soap. He patented the process with Edward Hunt and later sold the rights to this process to raise money to exploit his second invention, which was a process using ammonium sulfate and alumina as a low cost alternative to alumstone in the production of alum cake used in the manufacture of paper.
The process required china clay, and Pochin bought several china clay mines in Cornwall for this purpose. In time H. D. Pochin and Co became one of the three largest British producers of china clay until they were acquired in 1932 by the English China Clays along with the second largest producer, Lovering China Clays, to form English China Clays Lovering Pochin and Co. Ltd (ECLP), with both Lovering and Pochin remaining shareholders.
Between 1863 and 1867, Alderman Pochin led a consortium of Manchester business men in the formation of a number of companies in the iron, steel and coal industries. The first of these, the Staveley Coal and Iron Co Limited, was also the first to be formed by David Chadwick (1821–1885) a Manchester accountant whose accounting methods in relation to capitalisation and depreciation have attracted interest even 100 years or more later.
1864 Patent application by Peter Spence, of Smedley, New Hall, near Manchester, in the county of Lancaster, Manufacturing Chemist, and Henry Davis Pochin, of Broughton Old Hall, near Manchester aforesaid, Manufacturing Chemist, in respect of the invention of "an improvement in smelting copper ore."
1868 Pochin was elected to Parliament as one of two Members for Stafford. He also held public office at times as a Deputy Lieutenant and as Justice of the Peace.
Henry Pochin was a director of the Tredegar Iron and Coal Co, that sunk two shafts (North and South) at Pochin Colliery, Tredegar, in 1876 to a depth of 340 yards; the first coal was brought to the surface in 1881. The mine was named after Pochin’s daughter, Laura, who later married Charles McLaren, the Tredegar Company Chairman, who was later created first Baron Aberconway.
Between 1871 and 1876 Henry Pochin had a residence in Llandudno, North Wales at Haulfre, on the south facing landward side of the Great Orme where he was able to pursue his passion for gardening in an extensive and steeply terraced garden that since 1929 has been under the care of the local authority and is freely open to the public.
In 1874 Pochin bought the Bodnant estate at Tal-y-Cafn in the Conwy Valley comprising 25 farms with the Bodnant House and over 80 acres of garden where he lived in active retirement. At Bodnant, Pochin realised the superb qualities of the Dell through which the estate river ran and after first strengthening the banks to deter erosion he set about planting with great American and Oriental conifers. In 1949, Bodnant Garden was given to the National Trust.
His son-in-law Charles Benjamin Bright McLaren (The Right Honorable Lord Aberconway P.C., K.C.) became increasingly involved in the management of the companies inherited from him.
1895 Obituary [3]
HENRY DAVIS POCHIN, who died, in his seventy-second year, on October 28, 1895, at Bodnant Hall, Denbighshire, was for many years a prominent figure in English commercial life.
He studied chemistry in early life with the view of entering business in Manchester as a manufacturing chemist, and by his experimental research, which resulted in the establishment of valuable patents, he built up the firm of H. D. Pochin & Company (Limited), of Salford.
About thirty years ago, in conjunction with a few business friends, he acquired some of the principal iron and steel concerns in the country, which he converted into limited liability companies. In this way he became known as the leading spirit in Bolckow, Vaughan, & Company, John Brown & Company, the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company, Palmer's Shipbuilding and Iron Company, the Stavely Coal and Iron Company, the Sheepbridge Coal and Iron Company, and similar undertakings.
He was deputy chairman of the Metropolitan Railway Company, and a director of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway Company. For many years he took an active part in connection with popular education in Manchester and Salford, of which latter borough he was twice Mayor. He was a well-known member of the Reform Club, and sat for a short time in the Parliament of 1868, but was unseated on petition on account of an isolated and unauthorised act by an agent.
He was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1889.
1895 Obituary [4]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ London Gazette 15 June 1858
- ↑ London Gazette 12 August 1859
- ↑ 1895 Iron and Steel Institute: Obituaries
- ↑ Engineering 1895 Jul-Dec: Index: General Index
- Wikipedia
- Biography, ODNB