Whiffen and Sons: Fisons Booklet
Note: This is a sub-section of Whiffen and Sons
Abridged from an original Fison's publication
A member of the Grocers Company was Humphrey Primatt whose father, developing an interest in simple chemistry through drug grinding and extraction, started to make drugs at his place, 66 Aldersgate Street, London. This was in 1654 and drug and chemical manufacture was carried on at this address until 1884.
Unfortunately in those days companies were more in the nature of partnerships. changing the name as the partners changed and with few, if any, records of changes it is difficult to trace accurately the full sequence of events. It is certain however that a John Maud joined the next generation Primatt in the business, most probably through marriage, for out of the mists of the period in 1744 the partnership is recorded as Primatt and Maud in Osbornes Complete Guide to London.
In Kents London Directory for 1753 there is a reference to 'Maud and Primatt Chymists', and in The Gentlemans Magazine for 1782 there is an obituary notice recording the death of Mr Maud at Bristol on the 7th June 1782 'for many years an eminent Chymist in Aldersgate Street' This John Maud was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and is notable for his experiments in gaseous explosions. In his Admission Certificate to the Royal Society dated 20th April 1738, he is proposed as 'a Gentleman who has obliged the Society with several curious experiments'. In a paper (Phil. Trans. 1735 6 39. 282) presented through Sir James Lowther FRS shortly before his admission as a fellow and entitled 'A Chemical Experiment to Illustrate the Phenomenon of the Inflammable Air' Maud describes how he dissolved iron filings in dilute sulphuric acid and collected the 'fumes copiously exhaling' in bladders. He displayed two of these bladders to the Royal Society, demonstrating that the gas was inflammable and proceeds: 'After I had press'd part of the air out of the bladder, by drawing back the hand the flame was sucked into the bladder, and set on fire what inflammable air remained all at once, which went off like a gun with a great explosion' He then surmises that the experiment will 'easily explain a very probable cause of Earthquakes, Volcanoes. and all fiery eruptions out of the Earth. for nothing more is requisite than the Intervention of Iron with a Vitriolic acid and water...'
A further reference in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 1737, Maud gives an account of his 'most remarkable' discovery that a sample of 'Essential Oil of Sassafras which had stood exposed to a frosty night, in an open vessel, was changed, three parts out of four, into very beautiful transparent crystals, three or four inches in length, half an inch in thickness, and of an hexagonal form' and proceeds to moralize on the bearing of these observations upon the theory of crystallization and 'wherein consists the difference of Solidity and Fluidity'.
After the death of John Maud FRS, John Maud Jnr assumed control of the Company and from 1798 to 1820 his name alone is given in the directories where he is described sometimes as a Wholesale Chemist, and sometimes as a Chemist and Refiner. After 1820 the name of Maud no longer appears in connection with the business, and three new partners take over and for the first time the name of Atkinson comes into the picture. The London Directories of the period give successive entries for 66 Aldersgate Street as follows:
- 1821/28 Biggar. Atkinson and Dell
- 1835 Biggar, Atkinson and Chippindale
- 1839 Atkinson, Chippindale and Biggar
- 1843/64 Atkinson and Biggar
- 1865 George Atkinson and Co
The Company remained at 66 Aldersgate Street until 1884 when the manufacture of chemicals such as theirs was banned in the City of London, so the factory was transferred to an old paraffin oil works at Southall, and was called Aldersgate Chemical Works in memory of the many years spent in Aldersgate Street.
The warehouse and office were temporarily moved to Charterhouse Square and later established at 31-32 St Andrews Hill, London EC4.
Thomas Whiffen, the son of West of England parents, was born in London on the 28th July 1819. He was educated for a mercantile career and when he entered trade he showed great ability especially with figures, of which he had a rare mastery This liking for mathematics he probably inherited from his grandfather, who was a teacher of handwriting and mathematics at Sherborne Grammar School.
He also had a keen interest in chemistry and this led him in 1854 to join Edward Herring and Jacob Hulle who had started a chemical factory a few years earlier for the production of alkaloids and similar fine chemicals at Trinity Square in the Borough. Edward Herring was a descendant of the Herring Family, for many years Wholesale Druggists at 40 Aldersgate Street, and the new business was believed to have been known as the British and Foreign Alkaloid Company.
Thomas Whiffen started on the commercial side of the business, but owing to his great interest in chemistry soon transferred to the scientific and research side.
In 1858 Jacob Hulle bought Mr Herring's share in the business and in the following year a move was made to Thomas Whiffen's private house in Lombard Road, Battersea. Here the manufacture of quinine and strychnine was started in a building at the bottom of the spacious garden which stretched right down to the river Thames.
Thomas Whiffen did much to develop the use of quinine and its related products and was responsible for coining the name 'Quinetum' for the 'Pure Alkaloids of East India Red Bark' (chinchona succirubra), and at this time his factory was known as 'Quinine Works Battersea'.
The introduction of Hulles Strychnine was notable as, previously, pure strychnine had not been available on the British market. A contemporary account states that all earlier preparations had always been contaminated with brucine and 'frequently contained some grosser adulteration'. Brucine occurs with strychnine in the nux vomica bean from which it is extracted.
In 1868 Jacob Hulle retired from the business giving Thomas Whiffen the right to continue using his name as a brand mark for strychnine, in which connection it became known the world over, and particularly in Australia where, up to the introduction of myxomatosis, it was imported in large quantities for control of rabbits.
When he retired Jacob Hulle notified the trade that he had been the sole maker of strychnine in England for the past ten years and that 'the manufacture will be carried on by Mr Thomas Whiffen under whose personal care all strychnine hitherto sold' has been made. It may therefore be said that it was from November 1868 that Thomas Whiffen was in business on his own. In the same year he was joined by his second son William George Whiffen who took charge of the works although he was only seventeen years old, and by his elder son Thomas Joseph Whiffen in 1873.
The third son of Thomas Whiffen, Alfred, went out to Australia to represent the company, and set up with a Mr Harrison a small business, Harrison & Whiffen, to distribute Hulle's Strychnine for the parent company. As already mentioned, the strychnine was used to control rabbits and it was found that the skins of these rabbits were particularly suitable for making top hats and very good business was done with the USA in these skins. Alfred was unhappily lost at sea on his way to England for discussions.
There followed a period of consolidation during which the enterprise of Thomas Whiffen carried the business further forward. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, trade exhibitions were one of the most effective forms of advertising new developments in the rapidly expanding chemical field and Thomas Whiffen was very much to the fore in the big international exhibitions winning many gold medals for the quality of his products in open competition with the rest of the world. During this stage of the company's development price competition was not severe as the market was rapidly expanding and in most cases world production could be absorbed comfortably and new developments quickly commercialized. For example, in 1876 Dr T. J. Maclagen discovered the value of salicin in the treatment of acute rheumatism, and in the same year Thomas Whiffen started making it from the bark of a certain species of willow tree at that time plentiful in Belgium. When the young shoots had been gathered. a party of men from the works would go over to Belgium, strip the bark from the young shoots, and make a concentrated extract from it and ship this to England for purification, at the same time disposing of the stripped shoots to the local basket makers.
This business grew arid in 1903 the St Amand Manufacturing Company Limited was formed jointly with T. & H. Smith, J. & F. MacFarlane and Thomas Whiffen to handle the Belgium end of the business.
Thomas Whiffen further extended his operations by acquiring the business of George Atkinson & Co. in 1887 and thus it was that the two companies, so long neighbours in Aldersgate Street, became one under the name of Whiffen and to preserve the memory of the association with that early address he works from then on were renamed 'Aldersgate Chemical Works'.
The acquisition of George Atkinson & Co. not only brought with it a range of new chemicals but a long established reputation as drug grinders, oil pressers, and saltpetre refiners. The new chemicals added to the Whiffen list included antimony compounds, clove oil, almond oil, mercury sublimate and vermilion, iodine, iodides, iodoform, bromides and camphor. Atkinsons were renowned for their Camphor Bells which they made by subliming the camphor into specially made bell shaped glass containers blown by their own glass blowers on the site. The glass was then broken from the bells and re blown for the next charge.
Shortly before the First World War Whiffens thought it advisable to look into the manufacture of synthetic camphor as camphor was, at that time, of great importance in the production of photographic film. It was their intention to develop a German process which had been proved, but the scheme was held up by the war. Shortly after the war when the process was acquired it was found to be too big an undertaking for a small family company and the process was ultimately sold to an American company in 1919.
Sandalwood oil was another product of Atkinsons, and up to 1914 the distillation and sale of this was an important part of their trade. just before 1914 however, the Mysore Government of India from whom the majority of the sandalwood was obtained, decided to start distillation of the oil themselves, and sent an English chemist to Whiffens to investigate the production and market for this oil. Whiffens cooperated fully and as a result Atkinsons were appointed sole agents for distribution in Europe and the USA. It was not for many years after the war however that supplies of oil from India were sufficient to meet world demands and for the Atkinson plant to be closed.
At about the turn of the century several more important alkaloids were developed by the company, including thcobromine (from cocoa), caffeine (from tea), emetine and cephaeline (from ipecacuanha root), and nicotine (from tobacco waste).
The extraction of nicotine for horticultural purposes was first undertaken in the early 1890's as the result of a suggestion by a practical gardener, G. H. Richards, who had been head gardener for Lord Rothschild, and used to swap gardening experiences with his neighbour, Mr T. J. Whiffen's father-in-law. It was this same G. H. Richards who founded the business of G. H. Richards Ltd, Wholesale Horticultural Sundriesmen, with whom Whiffens maintained a close relation for many years.
Mr Thomas Whiffen, now well known for his manufacture of nicotine, was the first producer to be granted a full rebate of excise duty for manufacturing purposes and this privilege was later extended to tea, from which caffeine was extracted During the manufacture of nicotine the company had its own bonded warehouses and at one time employed two full time Customs Officers.
Thomas Whiffen died in 1904 and the business passed to his two sons, Thomas Joseph and William George, the latter having already worked for many years with his father was affectionately known in the works as 'Master George' He had a keen interest in science and as a youth attended lectures by Faraday and studied under Frankland and Tyndall at the constituent colleges, later to become the Imperial College of Science and Technology. A pilot scale laboratory was set up at the college to encourage students to enter industry. It was known as the Whiffen laboratory and still retains its title to this day. He was one of the earliest Fellows of the Institute of Chemistry (now The Royal Institute of Chemistry) founded in 1877 and his certificate is dated February 1878. He was also an original member of the Society of Chemical Industry which was founded in 1881.
Early in the 1900’s the next generation of Whiffens came into the business, with G. Goodman Whiffen joining in 1908, Stanley W. Whiffen in 1912, and Noel H. Whiffen in 1921, all three sons of Thomas Joseph Whiffen.
In 1912 the business was formed into a Private Limited Company, Whiffen & Sons Limited.
This next generation came into what was to be an interesting but more competitive era as the German chemical industry was making very rapid strides and competing severely with this country. The German manufacturers, as well as being excellent chemists and engineers, had advantages as far as raw materials were concerned. For example they had in their own country cheap sources of potash and bromine, both of which English manufacturers had to buy from them to make potassium bromide. Difficulties of this kind did not help in the periodic price wars which resulted in months of unprofitable trading, followed in some cases by the formation of cartels during the operation of which losses were sometimes recovered. These cartels were often complex and difficult to handle involving sales quotas, price fixing and adjustments in several currencies and with periodical cash adjustments made to placate fractious manufacturers.
In the years immediately prior to the First World War European manufacturers resorted to conventions to control quotas, price schedules &c in most of the main lines handled by Whiffens, and, no doubt, in many other important chemicals, this being the only counter to uneconomic competition. Occasional breakdowns of these conventions was inevitable and were followed by the fiercest possible competition, mostly carried on with the object of building up justification for a larger quota when the equally inevitable reconciliation came about. The outstanding exception to this was the Iodides Convention which ran without a break from 1888 until the Restrictive Trade Practices Act Of 1956. This convention was, up to the time of the retirement of Stanley Whiffen, managed by the company.
Although Whiffens were the managing firm the secretaries of the convention were Leisler Bock & Co Limited of Glasgow who acted in this capacity without a break for the whole period. At the beginning it consisted of British, French, and German interests and later included Italian and Dutch makers so that the meetings became like a veritable 'Tower of Babel'. At one of the last meetings in 1939 with Stanley Whiffen in the chair, they employed a Dr Schmidt as interpreter. This Dr Schmidt later became Hitler's interpreter. He lived long after Hitler and died on the 21st April 1970.
During the First World War Whiffens were busily engaged in producing most of their lines to maximum capacity under the direction of 'Master George' who, as we have seen, was a founder member of the Institute of Chemistry and had a high reputation as a chemist and engineer. He designed both plant and buildings for the factory at Battersea. He was chairman of the Government sponsored British Quinine Corporation, a body created to safeguard supplies of quinine during the period 1914-18.
At the end of the war there was a short boom in trade followed by a depression of varying intensity culminating in the dark years of the early 1930's. The international agreements that were broken by the war were reformed and, as a measure of Whiffens standing in the trade, they were the managing firm of the following Conventions: Iodides, Bromides, Strychnine, Vermilion, Emetine and Ext. Ipecac. Liq.
This position continued until just before the Second World War when the Germans withdrew from all such agreements, as a consequence of which all international agreements were terminated although various forms of co operation were continued by the British manufacturers. In no cases were these international agreements reformed. Price arrangements in the home market, however, remained a feature until the Restrictive Trade Practices Act became law in 1956, but by that time Whiffens, under direction from Fisons who now owned the company had already withdrawn from all restrictive arrangements.
Whiffens were always active participants in anything for the protection and betterment of the chemical industry and after the First World War it was decided by the industry that the chemical manufacturers needed an organization to represent them and Whiffens took a significant part in the formation of the Association of British Chemical Manufacturers, now the Chemical Industries Association.
There was still a gap between the chemical manufacturers and the wholesale druggists although even prior,to 1914 the following organizations were in existence, The Drug Club representing the wholesale druggists, The Pharmaceutical Society the chemists, and the Proprietary Articles Trade Association. There was no one association covering the chemical manufacturers and the wholesale druggists who were often in strong disagreement.
In 1929 a meeting between the two sections agreed that there was a necessity for an organization to maintain fair trading conditions, and to regulate trade practices throughout the whole industry as well as to represent the industry's collective interests with government, professional, and trade bodies. Whiffens were elected to the committee to work out details and in January 1930 the first AGM of the Wholesale Drug Traders Association was held. Whiffens were represented on the Council of this and the ABCM for many years. They were also instrumental in forming the Drug and Fine Chemical Manufacturers Association for dealing solely with the unions on all matters of wages and labour.
Not only did the Whiffen family show a great interest in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, they were for over three generations deeply and actively involved in hospital management and many London hospitals will remember the name of Whiffen with gratitude and affection.
Shortly after the First World War Whiffens decided they ought to start making in India drugs which were derived from indigenous plants such as nux vomica and possibly start cultivating crops of other drugs like ipecacuanha, where the climate and conditions resembled their natural surrounding and with extraction on the spot large economies could be effected. Whiffens being a private Limited Company could not finance such a project on their own so in 1919 Stanley Whiffen went to America to try to interest one or two chemical companies in the project and as a result of his efforts two companies joined with him to form, as a holding company, the Waltair Manufacturing Company. Stanley Whiffen set off for India to survey the possibilities on the spot and eventually ended up buying land near Vizagapatam, a very suitable area with coal and water supplies at hand, as well as being in the middle of a good area for nux vomica.
Unfortunately at this time Gandhi had started his drive for Indian independence and in 1920 the American partners, fearing that India would leave the British Empire and thus jeopardize the venture, withdrew their support. After attempts having failed to persuade the Americans to carry on and Whiffens having insufficient funds to go it alone, the matter was finally closed and the land eventually sold.
At home after 1918 the company settled down to further growth and it soon became apparent that new premises would be needed, particularly as the Southall site was required for an extension to the neighbouring gas works. A new site was chosen at Fulham on the other bank of the Thames near the Hurlingham Club, and opposite the Wandsworth gas works. A new and modern factory, office and warehouse were erected in Carnwath Road, Fulham, in 1923. The office and warehouse staff were moved from the City at the same time, and the new factory was of course named 'Aldersgate Chemical Works'.
The Battersea factory which by now occupied most of what had been a large garden, had overflowed on to an adjacent site as well as on to another piece of ground on the other side of the road, continued in being until 1933 when it also had to give way to allow the expansion of the local Electricity undertaking.
The plant was therefore moved to the new Fulham premises and so, at last all the operations, works, offices and warehouses came together on the one site.
During the time that both Battersea and Fulham were manufacturing, transport and communications between the two was by steamboat and old fashioned horse drawn tumbrils were used to convey the byproduct iron muds from the bromides and iodides manufacture to the nearby gas works.
A peep at the Battersea works just before its move would have shown most of the large garden absorbed by the works and the house itself used for storage, except for a boardroom and dining room for the directors downstairs and some accommodation for the sergeant caretaker upstairs. The old house and the oldest part of the factory, with what remained of the garden in between where the pigeons came fluttering down from the old trees, had a very Dickensian atmosphere; an ancient mulberry tree which had stood there for 300 years was unfortunately blown down in 1928 during a gale.
Thomas Joseph Whiffen died in 1931 having maintained his close association with the business up to the time of his death in his eighty first year. 'Mr George' who survived him continued actively at work until his death in 1934 at the age of eighty two. During his life Mr George maintained two horse drawn carriages an open one for sunny days and a closed one for winter weather and daily came to Fulham from his Wimbledon Common home behind his liveried coachmen. Up to the end of his days he always liked to experiment in the laboratory, and usually arrived just about the time the staff considered was their lunch hour. For many years it was the custom in the Battersea laboratory to prepare a special brew of tea with a pinch of citric acid, in place of lemon, in anticipation of his visit.
On the deaths of Thomas Joseph and William George Whiffen the company passed into the care of Goodman, Stanley and Noel Whiffen, the three sons of Thomas Joseph and the three brothers carried on the fine traditions built up by their illustrious forebears.
In 1935 the 'Jubilee Laboratory' was opened to house the Research Department, now a separate entity, a move which had been much needed as the Atkinson side of the business, with few exceptions, had been on the inorganic side and neglected the organic field The Research Department gradually remedied this situation and the company moved into the field with a range of organic bromine compounds as a start.
The product list was varied and at the time of the take over by Fisons numbered some 336 individual chemicals not to mention the various grades and preparations. These included: Bromides and iodides, alkaloids (quinine, emetine, strychnine, atropine &c); Dyeline chemicals, camphor, vermilion, essential oils and the salts of many acids and a wide variety of metals.
Emetine became one of Whiffens most important products and although it was first manufactured from ipecacuanha root in 1807 it was the discovery of its specific value in the treatment of amoebic dysentery by (Dr) Sir Leonard Rogers in 1912 that brought it into prominence and production increased enormously in the years 1914-18 and again in 1939-45 for treating troops and others operating in those parts of the world where the disease was most prevalent. Ipecacuanha is indigenous in Central and South America, where it grows wild in the forests, there obtaining the necessary shade for its growth. The root is harvested by the natives of the areas in a somewhat haphazard fashion and the root itself contains emetine and cephaeline in varying percentages. Root from the Mato Grosso contained more emetine than cephaeline and was the principal source of supply. During and after the Second World War Mato Grosso root was difficult to obtain as factories for the extraction of the emetine were set up in Brazil by German chemists, and the root remained in that country. Fortunately a process was developed to convert cephaeline to emetine and British manufacturers were now able to use root from Nicaragua which had a higher percentage content of cephaeline than emetine.
Such was the importance of a good supply of root that Whiffens, during the late 1950's with Fisons help, investigated the cultivation of root in Nicaragua and a small farm was set up only to be sold off shortly after when competition from Indian produced root and the threat of synthetic emetine. However before this, in November 1954 a Company, Whiffens India (Private) Limited, was formed to manufacture emetine in what was the largest single market. At the time production was based on Mato Grosso root, although later the company came to use root grown in India. This company, now Whiffens India Limited, the first to manufacture emetine in India, is in being to this day and still helps to serve the demands of this important market.
In the mid 1930's, when the anti pellagra factor of the vitamin B complex was identified as nicotinic acid, Whiffens were the first to manufacture and market nicotinic acid in the UK. Quinine they originally extracted from cinchona bark, and this carried on until the Dutch started manufacture in Java on the site of the cinchona plantations when Whiffens found it more convenient, and economic, to take their requirements from the Dutch in the form of quinine sulphate from which they made the various derivatives.
Whiffens originally extracted caffeine from tea waste, while the Dutch produced it from cocoa residues, which the cocoa firms in this country exported to them with the primary object of recovering, by drawback, the original import duty. By using this cheap raw material the Dutch made things very difficult for the British manufacturers on price. Early in the Second World War Whiffens were requested by the Government to manufacture caffeine and theobromine from crude theobromine produced by the cocoa manufacturers in this country. After the war the manufacturers were allowed to reclaim the duty on cocoa residues when these were used for the manufacture of theobromine, and once more the British makers were on a level footing with their Dutch competitors.
Eventually manufacture ceased at Whiffens when a successful and economic process for production of synthetic caffeine was established.
Vermilion, another of the old Atkinson products, used mainly in the manufacture of dental plates, paint (pillar box red), and printing ink, continued steadily up to 1940 when production ceased with the introduction of plastic dental plates and an organic pigment aniline red. Atropine was first made by Whiffens in 1907, and carried on until supplies of Egyptian henbane were cut off during the Second World War. The Government, however, arranged for research to proceed at the Dyson Perrins Laboratories at Oxford into finding a substitute for atropine. Many compounds were tried and the one chosen was 'Lachesine', a drug which although not a complete substitute for atropine was the one which had the advantage that it was acceptable to those people allergic to atropine Whiffens undertook the full scale production of this drug Other changes were also seen during the Second World War with many of the staff undertaking important duties either in the forces or in Civil Defence and in the factory, emergency manufacturing plans had to be put into operation. An example was 'Euphylline', a German proprietary used in the treatment of certain heart conditions, and for which Whiffens had been the British agents. It was in very great demand and with the war, supplies from Germany were cut off, but Whiffens were able before stocks of German material were exhausted, to market a preparation of their own of the same formula. This they called 'Cardophylline' and its use continued for many years.
Examples such as these give an idea of the quick appreciation of a situation and the enterprise of this old family business, a business led through its long and eventful history by men of academic and practical skill and above all a pioneer spirit, which spirit is alive to this day through David H. Whiffen FRS son of Noel H. Whiffen and great grandson of Thomas Whiffen currently Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. It was a business which had seen many changes, but time and conditions brought about even greater changes in the post war world.
In 1947 Fisons acquired the trading interests of the company and although the Whiffen family maintained its interest in the company it gradually withdrew from the active scene.
In 1948 G. Goodman Whiffen, and Noel H. Whiffen retired, but Stanley W. Whiffen carried on as Managing Director until 1950. and remained on the Board until 1958. The merge with Fisons marked perhaps the most significant change as the older drugs and chemicals, so long used in medicine and pharmacy, were slowly giving way to the modern antibiotics and synthetic drugs, and the face of the industry was also changing with the merging of companies large and small.
This was the prelude to the greatest and most drastic change of all which came in 1958 when the long association with London was finally broken. The Fulham site was closed and sold and manufacture rationalized with the fine chemical production at Fisons Willows factory in Loughborough, which had already for a short time been under the new Whiffen management. The company was still called Whiffen and Sons Limited. but of the old list of chemicals only two groups of products remained; emetine and preparations, and dyeline chemicals.
Emetine was ultimately relinquished in the face of world competition, and synthetic production in 1965. Dyeline chemicals continued for several more years and the company became recognized as suppliers to this very complex industry in which secrecy had been the keynote for a long time, and they held the confidence of the producers of the finished copying papers.
In 1966 the name of Whiffen disappeared from the scene as a manufacturing entity when the company was renamed Fisons Industrial Chemicals Limited, and the final pages of this long history turned to a close in February 1972, but the name of Whiffen will remain as it now adorns one of the principal Fisons factories where modern enterprise is characterized in the chemicals made by Fisons Limited, Agrochemical Division: Whiffen Works,, Widnes, Lancs.
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