Charles Tennant
Encyclopedia
Charles Tennant was a Scottish chemist
and industrialist. He discovered bleaching powder
and founded an industrial dynasty.
, Ayrshire
to John Tennant (1725–1810) and his second wife Margaret McClure (1738–1784). The family had worked the land for generations and were friends with local poet Robert Burns
(1759–1796). In Burns' epistle to "James Tennant of Glenconner" Tennant is mentioned as "wabster Charlie" (Scots language
: weaver). This referring to the occupation on which Tennant had embarked, namely silk
weaving
, being apprenticed at the village of Kilbarchan
, Renfrewshire
.
Charles was the ninth of John Tennants sixteen children. As a baby, he moved from Laigh corton farm to Glenconner, Ochiltree
, Ayrshire
This was the humble beginning of the man who was destined to become founder and master of a mighty chemical empire and a great liberal reformer. He became one of the most progressive thinkers of his time.
He was fortunate to receive schooling both at home and at the Ochiltree
parish school. He was apprenticed by his father to a master handloom weaver. This was a highly paid occupation, requiring great skill and considerable intelligence. Weavers were to be envied at the end of the eighteenth century for weaving had developed into Scotland's first industry, the counterpart of the woolen industry in England. Most farmers grew flax for their wives to spin and this, along with imported cotton, provided the material for many newly established cotton mills.
industry was bleaching cloth. At that time this involved treatment with stale urine
and leaving the cloth exposed to sunlight
for many months in so called bleaching fields. Huge quantities of unbleached cotton piled up in the warehouses. Charles left his well paid weaving position to try to develop improved bleaching methods. This led him to start his own bleaching fields in 1788, at Darnley, near Barrhead
, Renfrewshire
. From his father he inherited an untiring capacity for work. A neighbour, William Wilson of Hurlet (and wife Margaret Penman), initially had been very hostile at the introduction of a bleachfield
next to his farm. He changed, after watching with admiration as Charles worked from dawn till late at night in his bleachfilds. his admiration led to a social invitation which had a great impact on Charles' life, for he met and later (in 1795) married Wilson's daughter, Margaret (1766–1843). Their marriage lasted forty-three years and she bore him nine children.
Having acquired his bleachfield, Charles turned his mind and energy to developing ways to shorten the time required in bleaching. Others had already done much work on this problem and managed to reduce bleaching time from eighteen months to four by replacing sour milk with sulphuric acid in the bleaching process. Further, in the last half of the eighteenth century, bleachers started to use lime in the bleaching process, but only in secret due to possible injurious effects from the lime. Charles had the original idea that a combination of chlorine and lime would produce the best bleaching results. He worked on this idea for several years and was finally successful. His method proved to be effective, inexpensive and harmless. he was granted patent #2209 on 23 January 1798. He continued his research and developed a bleaching powder for which he was granted patent #2312 on 30 April 1799.
While still working in the bleachfields around the year 1794, Charles formed a partnership with four friends. the first of these, Dr. William Couper (His three sons married Charles' three youngest daughters.), was the legal advisor to the partnership. The second partner was Alexander Dunlop (His brother married Charles' eldest daughter), who served as accountant to the group. The third partner, James Knox, managed the sales department. Charles Macintosh, an excellent chemist, was the fourth partner. He is known for his technique of macintosh waterproofing and he also assisted in the invention of bleaching powder. Charles was indeed fortunate to have these men as his partners.
Immediately after granting of the patent on bleaching, Charles and his partners purchased land on the Monkland Canal
, just north of Glasgow, to build a factory for the production of bleaching liquor and powder. The area was known as St. Rollox, after a French holy man. It was close to a good supply of lime, and since the area was rural, the land was cheap. Additionally, the nearby canal provided excellent transportation. Production was swiftly moved from the earlier bleachfields in Darnley, to the new plant in St. Rollox. From the first it was a splendid success. Production increased from fifty-two tons the first year, 1799, to over nine thousand two hundred tons the fifth year. Later a second plant was built at Hebburn
, raising production of bleaching powder alone to twenty thousand tons by 1865.
All was not smooth sailing however. In 1798 James Knox and Robert Tennant (Charles younger brother), went to Ireland where they struck a deal with the Irish bleachers, for the use of the process. Although the Irish bleachers admitted a saving of over GB£
160,000 in 1799 alone, by using the Tennant process, they never paid for its use as agreed. They welched on their word and on the contract. As a result the partnership lost a great deal in time and money. Further losses came from challenges to the patents in England and Ireland and the outright pirating of the process. In spite of these worrisome problems the partnership as a great success. It continued for fourteen years when the rights under the patents expired.
Charles continued to expand his horizons during this time. When the partnership ended he purchased the company. As a forward thinking business man, he was in a class by himself. His company, during the 1830s and 1840s was the largest chemical plant in the world.
As a dedicated reformer Charles played his full part in the movements of the day. A great deal of unrest followed the Napoleonic wars
, which had the effect of increased wealth for the manufacturing classes but poverty for the working classes. Charles and his son John were active in a time liberal views could be construed as treason. He worked for many years in the reform movement, but it was not until he reached the age of sixty-four that his effort bore fruit with the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832. His ideas and active support helped create one of the most productive periods of social progress and reform, in almost every area, in Scotland's history.
Charles Tennant, in spite of the many demands on his time from outside sources, never lost sight of the main business in his life, the St. Rollox chemical works. By the year 1832, St. Rollox was consuming thirty thousand tons of coal a year. The system had not been designed to handle this volume. It just could not do so efficiently. He plunged into a study of possible solutions to the problem. His imagination and interest were fired by a new way of transporting people and freight. This involved using wagons, pulled by a steam engine, on iron rails laid on a level roadbed. He had heard of this from his good friend George Stephenson
, the great railway engineer. he quickly realized this was the answer to his problem at St. Rollox. From 1825 until his death he was one of the prime movers in railway expansion. He was mainly responsible for getting a railway into Glasgow, over the fierce opposition of the canal proprietors.
Never one to overlook a sideline, Charles decided he must not forget the waterways. In 1830 he started his younger sister Sarah's son, William Sloan, with some small schooners. He saw this as a way to control the transportation of chemical products to nearby markets. At the time of Sloan's death in 1848 they had the largest fleet in Glasgow, and were running nineteen vessels.
Charles lived to see his empire grow to be the largest and most important in the world. He died on 1 October 1838. He was, beyond question, an entrepreneur of amazing ability. His dedication to his work, his family and his sense of what was right and fair lasted until the day he died. He was quick to champion those less fortunate, and the reforms he initiated and supported made the lives of his countrymen better. What a fine epitaph!
Charles Macintosh (1766–1843) he helped establish Scotland's first alum
works at Hurlet
, Renfrewshire
. In 1798 he took out a patent
for a bleach liquor formed by passing chlorine
into a mixture of lime
and water. This product had the advantage of being cheaper than the one generally used at the time because it substituted lime for potash
. Unfortunately when Tennant attempted to protect his rights against infringement, his patent
was held invalid on the double ground that the specification was incomplete and that the invention had been anticipated at a bleach works near Nottingham
. Tennant's great discovery was bleaching powder (chloride of lime) for which he took a patent
in 1799. The process involved reacting chlorine
and dry slaked lime to form bleaching powder, a mixture of calcium hypochlorite
and other derivatives. It seems Macintosh also played a significant role in this discovery and remained one of Tennant's associates for many years.
In 1800 Tennant founded a chemical works at St.Rollox
, Glasgow
. The principle product being bleaching powder (calcium hypochlorite
), which was sold worldwide. By 1815 the business was known as Charles Tennant & Co. and had expanded into other chemicals, metallurgy
and explosives. The early rail network in Scotland and important mines in Spain were also areas of interest.
The St. Rollox plant grew to be the largest chemical works in the world during the 1830s and 1840s. It covers over 100 acre (0.404686 km²) and had 250000 square feet (23,225.8 m²) of floor space. It had a payroll of over one thousand persons and dominated the local economy. The huge chimney
known as the St. Rollox Stalk aka Tennant's Stalk towered over everything. It was a well-known landmark around Glasgow
. Built in 1842, it rose a majestic 435.5 feet (132.7 m) in the air. It was 40 feet (12.2 m) in diameter at ground level. In 1922 it was struck by lightning and had to be dynamite
d down, but until that time it was in daily use.
. He is buried in Glasgow Necropolis
cemetery where his monument is in the form of a seated figure, the sculpture is by Patrick Park (1811–1855). The mighty business empire Tennant founded and the immense wealth generated allowed many of his descendants to marry into the British
aristocracy
, his grandson Charles Clow Tennant (1823–1906) becoming 1st baronet
. The chemical business founded by Tennant became known as the United Alkali Company
Ltd. and eventually merged with others in 1926 to form the chemical giant Imperial Chemical Industries
. The chemical works at Springburn
closed in 1964. The company still exists and has headquarters in Bath Street and a factory in Maryhill
.
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
and industrialist. He discovered bleaching powder
Calcium hypochlorite
Calcium hypochlorite is a chemical compound with formula 2. It is widely used for water treatment and as a bleaching agent...
and founded an industrial dynasty.
Biography
Born at Laigh Corton, AllowayAlloway
Alloway is best known as the birthplace of Robert Burns, and as where he set his poem "Tam o' Shanter"....
, Ayrshire
Ayrshire
Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...
to John Tennant (1725–1810) and his second wife Margaret McClure (1738–1784). The family had worked the land for generations and were friends with local poet Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
(1759–1796). In Burns' epistle to "James Tennant of Glenconner" Tennant is mentioned as "wabster Charlie" (Scots language
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
: weaver). This referring to the occupation on which Tennant had embarked, namely silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
weaving
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
, being apprenticed at the village of Kilbarchan
Kilbarchan
Kilbarchan is a village and civil parish in central Renfrewshire, in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The village's name means "cell of St. Barchan". It is known for its former weaving industry.- History :...
, Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire is one of 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfrewshire, the others being Inverclyde to the west and East Renfrewshire to the east...
.
Charles was the ninth of John Tennants sixteen children. As a baby, he moved from Laigh corton farm to Glenconner, Ochiltree
Ochiltree
Ochiltree, spelt Uchletree in the Middle Ages, is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland near Auchinleck and Cumnock. It is one of the oldest villages in East Ayrshire with archaeological remains indicating Stone Age and Bronze Age settlers....
, Ayrshire
Ayrshire
Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...
This was the humble beginning of the man who was destined to become founder and master of a mighty chemical empire and a great liberal reformer. He became one of the most progressive thinkers of his time.
He was fortunate to receive schooling both at home and at the Ochiltree
Ochiltree
Ochiltree, spelt Uchletree in the Middle Ages, is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland near Auchinleck and Cumnock. It is one of the oldest villages in East Ayrshire with archaeological remains indicating Stone Age and Bronze Age settlers....
parish school. He was apprenticed by his father to a master handloom weaver. This was a highly paid occupation, requiring great skill and considerable intelligence. Weavers were to be envied at the end of the eighteenth century for weaving had developed into Scotland's first industry, the counterpart of the woolen industry in England. Most farmers grew flax for their wives to spin and this, along with imported cotton, provided the material for many newly established cotton mills.
Impetus
Charles was quick to learn his trade (weaving) but also to see that the growth of the industry far surpassed the development of bleaching methods, which were very primitive. An important aspect of the weavingWeaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
industry was bleaching cloth. At that time this involved treatment with stale urine
Urine
Urine is a typically sterile liquid by-product of the body that is secreted by the kidneys through a process called urination and excreted through the urethra. Cellular metabolism generates numerous by-products, many rich in nitrogen, that require elimination from the bloodstream...
and leaving the cloth exposed to sunlight
Sunlight
Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the Earth's atmosphere, and solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon.When the direct solar radiation is not blocked...
for many months in so called bleaching fields. Huge quantities of unbleached cotton piled up in the warehouses. Charles left his well paid weaving position to try to develop improved bleaching methods. This led him to start his own bleaching fields in 1788, at Darnley, near Barrhead
Barrhead
Barrhead is a town in East Renfrewshire, Scotland, southwest of Glasgow on the edge of the Gleniffer Braes. As of the 2001 census its population was 19,813....
, Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire is one of 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfrewshire, the others being Inverclyde to the west and East Renfrewshire to the east...
. From his father he inherited an untiring capacity for work. A neighbour, William Wilson of Hurlet (and wife Margaret Penman), initially had been very hostile at the introduction of a bleachfield
Bleachfield
A bleachfield or croft was an open area of land used for spreading cloth and fabrics on the ground to be bleached by the action of the sun and water...
next to his farm. He changed, after watching with admiration as Charles worked from dawn till late at night in his bleachfilds. his admiration led to a social invitation which had a great impact on Charles' life, for he met and later (in 1795) married Wilson's daughter, Margaret (1766–1843). Their marriage lasted forty-three years and she bore him nine children.
While still working in the bleachfields around the year 1794, Charles formed a partnership with four friends. the first of these, Dr. William Couper (His three sons married Charles' three youngest daughters.), was the legal advisor to the partnership. The second partner was Alexander Dunlop (His brother married Charles' eldest daughter), who served as accountant to the group. The third partner, James Knox, managed the sales department. Charles Macintosh, an excellent chemist, was the fourth partner. He is known for his technique of macintosh waterproofing and he also assisted in the invention of bleaching powder. Charles was indeed fortunate to have these men as his partners.
Immediately after granting of the patent on bleaching, Charles and his partners purchased land on the Monkland Canal
Monkland Canal
The Monkland Canal was a 12.25-mile canal which connected the coal mining areas of Monklands to Glasgow in Scotland. It was opened in 1794, and included a steam-powered inclined plane at Blackhill. It was abandoned for navigation in 1942, but its culverted remains still supply water to the Forth...
, just north of Glasgow, to build a factory for the production of bleaching liquor and powder. The area was known as St. Rollox, after a French holy man. It was close to a good supply of lime, and since the area was rural, the land was cheap. Additionally, the nearby canal provided excellent transportation. Production was swiftly moved from the earlier bleachfields in Darnley, to the new plant in St. Rollox. From the first it was a splendid success. Production increased from fifty-two tons the first year, 1799, to over nine thousand two hundred tons the fifth year. Later a second plant was built at Hebburn
Hebburn
Hebburn is a small town situated on the south bank of the River Tyne in North East England, sandwiched between the towns of Jarrow and Bill Quay...
, raising production of bleaching powder alone to twenty thousand tons by 1865.
All was not smooth sailing however. In 1798 James Knox and Robert Tennant (Charles younger brother), went to Ireland where they struck a deal with the Irish bleachers, for the use of the process. Although the Irish bleachers admitted a saving of over GB£
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
160,000 in 1799 alone, by using the Tennant process, they never paid for its use as agreed. They welched on their word and on the contract. As a result the partnership lost a great deal in time and money. Further losses came from challenges to the patents in England and Ireland and the outright pirating of the process. In spite of these worrisome problems the partnership as a great success. It continued for fourteen years when the rights under the patents expired.
Charles continued to expand his horizons during this time. When the partnership ended he purchased the company. As a forward thinking business man, he was in a class by himself. His company, during the 1830s and 1840s was the largest chemical plant in the world.
As a dedicated reformer Charles played his full part in the movements of the day. A great deal of unrest followed the Napoleonic wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, which had the effect of increased wealth for the manufacturing classes but poverty for the working classes. Charles and his son John were active in a time liberal views could be construed as treason. He worked for many years in the reform movement, but it was not until he reached the age of sixty-four that his effort bore fruit with the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832. His ideas and active support helped create one of the most productive periods of social progress and reform, in almost every area, in Scotland's history.
Charles Tennant, in spite of the many demands on his time from outside sources, never lost sight of the main business in his life, the St. Rollox chemical works. By the year 1832, St. Rollox was consuming thirty thousand tons of coal a year. The system had not been designed to handle this volume. It just could not do so efficiently. He plunged into a study of possible solutions to the problem. His imagination and interest were fired by a new way of transporting people and freight. This involved using wagons, pulled by a steam engine, on iron rails laid on a level roadbed. He had heard of this from his good friend George Stephenson
George Stephenson
George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...
, the great railway engineer. he quickly realized this was the answer to his problem at St. Rollox. From 1825 until his death he was one of the prime movers in railway expansion. He was mainly responsible for getting a railway into Glasgow, over the fierce opposition of the canal proprietors.
Never one to overlook a sideline, Charles decided he must not forget the waterways. In 1830 he started his younger sister Sarah's son, William Sloan, with some small schooners. He saw this as a way to control the transportation of chemical products to nearby markets. At the time of Sloan's death in 1848 they had the largest fleet in Glasgow, and were running nineteen vessels.
Charles lived to see his empire grow to be the largest and most important in the world. He died on 1 October 1838. He was, beyond question, an entrepreneur of amazing ability. His dedication to his work, his family and his sense of what was right and fair lasted until the day he died. He was quick to champion those less fortunate, and the reforms he initiated and supported made the lives of his countrymen better. What a fine epitaph!
Discovery
With the chemistChemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
Charles Macintosh (1766–1843) he helped establish Scotland's first alum
Alum
Alum is both a specific chemical compound and a class of chemical compounds. The specific compound is the hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate with the formula KAl2.12H2O. The wider class of compounds known as alums have the related empirical formula, AB2.12H2O.-Chemical properties:Alums are...
works at Hurlet
Hurlet
Hurlet is a small semi-rural district and former mining village, straddling the Renfrewshire-East Renfrewshire-Glasgow border near the town of Barrhead in the lowlands of Scotland...
, Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire is one of 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfrewshire, the others being Inverclyde to the west and East Renfrewshire to the east...
. In 1798 he took out a patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
for a bleach liquor formed by passing chlorine
Chlorine
Chlorine is the chemical element with atomic number 17 and symbol Cl. It is the second lightest halogen, found in the periodic table in group 17. The element forms diatomic molecules under standard conditions, called dichlorine...
into a mixture of lime
Lime (mineral)
Lime is a general term for calcium-containing inorganic materials, in which carbonates, oxides and hydroxides predominate. Strictly speaking, lime is calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide. It is also the name for a single mineral of the CaO composition, occurring very rarely...
and water. This product had the advantage of being cheaper than the one generally used at the time because it substituted lime for potash
Potash
Potash is the common name for various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form. In some rare cases, potash can be formed with traces of organic materials such as plant remains, and this was the major historical source for it before the industrial era...
. Unfortunately when Tennant attempted to protect his rights against infringement, his patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
was held invalid on the double ground that the specification was incomplete and that the invention had been anticipated at a bleach works near Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
. Tennant's great discovery was bleaching powder (chloride of lime) for which he took a patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
in 1799. The process involved reacting chlorine
Chlorine
Chlorine is the chemical element with atomic number 17 and symbol Cl. It is the second lightest halogen, found in the periodic table in group 17. The element forms diatomic molecules under standard conditions, called dichlorine...
and dry slaked lime to form bleaching powder, a mixture of calcium hypochlorite
Calcium hypochlorite
Calcium hypochlorite is a chemical compound with formula 2. It is widely used for water treatment and as a bleaching agent...
and other derivatives. It seems Macintosh also played a significant role in this discovery and remained one of Tennant's associates for many years.
Fortune
Glasgow St. Rollox (UK Parliament constituency)
Glasgow St. Rollox was a burgh constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1950. It elected one Member of Parliament using the first-past-the-post voting system....
, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. The principle product being bleaching powder (calcium hypochlorite
Calcium hypochlorite
Calcium hypochlorite is a chemical compound with formula 2. It is widely used for water treatment and as a bleaching agent...
), which was sold worldwide. By 1815 the business was known as Charles Tennant & Co. and had expanded into other chemicals, metallurgy
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
and explosives. The early rail network in Scotland and important mines in Spain were also areas of interest.
The St. Rollox plant grew to be the largest chemical works in the world during the 1830s and 1840s. It covers over 100 acre (0.404686 km²) and had 250000 square feet (23,225.8 m²) of floor space. It had a payroll of over one thousand persons and dominated the local economy. The huge chimney
Chimney
A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the...
known as the St. Rollox Stalk aka Tennant's Stalk towered over everything. It was a well-known landmark around Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. Built in 1842, it rose a majestic 435.5 feet (132.7 m) in the air. It was 40 feet (12.2 m) in diameter at ground level. In 1922 it was struck by lightning and had to be dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
d down, but until that time it was in daily use.
Legacy
Tennant died on 1 October 1838 in GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. He is buried in Glasgow Necropolis
Glasgow Necropolis
The Glasgow Necropolis is a Victorian cemetery in Glasgow, Scotland. It is on a low but very prominent hill to the east of Glasgow Cathedral . Fifty thousand individuals have been buried here. Typically for the period only a small percentage are named on monuments and not every grave has a stone...
cemetery where his monument is in the form of a seated figure, the sculpture is by Patrick Park (1811–1855). The mighty business empire Tennant founded and the immense wealth generated allowed many of his descendants to marry into the British
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
aristocracy
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
, his grandson Charles Clow Tennant (1823–1906) becoming 1st baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
. The chemical business founded by Tennant became known as the United Alkali Company
United Alkali Company
United Alkali Company Limited was a British chemical company formed in 1890. Producer of soda ash by the Leblanc process and used in the glass, textile, soap, and paper industries. It became one of the top four British chemical companies merged in 1926 with Brunner Mond, Nobel Explosives and...
Ltd. and eventually merged with others in 1926 to form the chemical giant Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...
. The chemical works at Springburn
Springburn
Springburn is an inner city district in the north of the Scottish city of Glasgow, home to various working and middle-class households.Springburn developed from a small rural hamlet at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Its industrial expansion began with the establishment of a chemical...
closed in 1964. The company still exists and has headquarters in Bath Street and a factory in Maryhill
Maryhill
Maryhill is an area of the City of Glasgow in Scotland. Maryhill is a former burgh. The population of Maryhill is about 52,000. Maryhill stretches over along Maryhill Road...
.
Notable descendants & relatives
- Alexander TennantAlexander TennantAlexander Tennant, born in Ochiltree, Ayrshire in 1772, was a leading British colonist in the Cape Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, an enterprising merchant, a brother to industrialist Charles Tennant and a friend of Robbie Burns.- Early life :...
(1772–1814) brother - Charles Clow Tennant (1823–1906) grandson
- Edward Tennant, 1st Baron GlenconnerEdward Tennant, 1st Baron GlenconnerEdward Priaulx Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner , known as Sir Edward Tennant, 2nd Baronet, from 1906 to 1911, was a Scottish Liberal politician....
(1859–1920) great grandson - Margot AsquithMargot AsquithMargot Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith , born Emma Alice Margaret Tennant, was an Anglo-Scottish socialite, author and wit...
(1864–1946) great granddaughter - Harold TennantHarold TennantHarold John "Jack" Tennant PC was a Scottish Liberal politician. He served as Secretary for Scotland under his brother-in-law H. H...
(1865–1935) great grandson - Edward Wyndham TennantEdward Wyndham TennantLt. Edward Wyndham Tennant , was an English war poet, killed at the Battle of the Somme.He was the son of Edward Tennant, who became Lord Glenconner in 1911, and Pamela Wyndham, a writer, Lady Glenconner and later wife of Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon...
(1897–1916) 2nd great grandson - Elizabeth BibescoElizabeth BibescoElizabeth, Princess Bibesco was an English writer active between 1921 and 1940. A final posthumous collection of her stories, poems and aphorisms was published under the title Haven in 1951, with a preface by Elizabeth Bowen.-Childhood and youth:Elizabeth Charlotte Lucy was the first child of...
(1897–1945) 2nd great granddaughter - Anthony AsquithAnthony AsquithAnthony Asquith was a leading English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on The Winslow Boy and The Browning Version , among other adaptations...
(1902–1968) 2nd great grandson - Stephen TennantStephen TennantStephen James Napier Tennant was a British aristocrat known for his decadent lifestyle. It is said, albeit apocryphally, that he spent most of his life in bed.-Early life:...
(1906–1987) 2nd great grandson - Simon Fraser, 15th Lord LovatSimon Fraser, 15th Lord LovatBrigadier Simon Christopher Joseph Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat and 4th Baron Lovat DSO, MC, TD was the 25th Chief of the Clan Fraser and a prominent British Commando during the Second World War...
(1911–1995) 3rd great grandson - Hugh Fraser (politician)Hugh Fraser (politician)Major Sir Hugh Charles Patrick Joseph Fraser MBE was a British Conservative politician and first husband of the author Lady Antonia Fraser.-Youth and military career:...
(1918–1984) 3rd great grandson - Harold Tennyson, 4th Baron Tennyson (1919–1991) 3rd great grandson
- Charles Manners, 10th Duke of RutlandCharles Manners, 10th Duke of RutlandCharles John Robert Manners, 10th Duke of Rutland was the son of John Manners, 9th Duke of Rutland.He married, firstly, Anne Bairstow Cumming Bell, on 27 April 1946 and they were divorced in 1956. They had one child:...
(1919–1999) 3rd great grandson - Iain TennantIain TennantSir Iain Mark Tennant KT FRSA was a Scottish businessman.Born in North Berwick, Tennant was educated at Eton College and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He served in Egypt with the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards from 1940 to 1942, and was an intelligence officer with 201 Guards' Brigade...
(1919–2006) 3rd great grandson - David Fane, 15th Earl of WestmorlandDavid Fane, 15th Earl of WestmorlandDavid Anthony Thomas Fane, 15th Earl of Westmorland GCVO, DL , styled Lord Burghersh until 1948, was a British courtier....
(1924–1993) 3rd great grandson - Emma TennantEmma TennantEmma Christina Tennant FRSL is a British novelist and editor. She is known for a postmodern approach to her fiction, which is often imbued with fantasy or magic. Several of her novels give a feminist or dreamlike twist to classic stories, such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr....
(b. 1937) 3rd great granddaughter - Arthur Gore, 9th Earl of ArranArthur Gore, 9th Earl of ArranArthur Colum Michael Connolly-Gore, 9th Earl of Arran , styled Viscount Sudley before 1983, is a British peer and an elected hereditary member of the House of Lords for the Conservative Party....
(b. 1938) 4th great grandson - Torquhil Campbell, 13th Duke of ArgyllTorquhil Campbell, 13th Duke of ArgyllTorquhil Ian Campbell, 13th and 6th Duke of Argyll , known as Earl of Campbell before 1973 and as Marquess of Lorne between 1973 and 2001, is a Scottish Peer...
(b. 1968) 5th great grandson - Stella TennantStella TennantStella Tennant is a British model. The granddaughter of the late Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire and Deborah Mitford, who is the last of the noted Mitford sisters, Tennant was born in Scotland and attended St Leonards School in St Andrews. Her parents are The Hon...
(b. 1970) 4th great granddaughter - Honor FraserHonor FraserHonor Fraser is a Scottish art dealer in California and a former British fashion model. She is the sister of the 16th Lord Lovat and was brought up at Beaufort Castle in Scotland.-Early years:...
(b. 1974) 5th great granddaughter
Sources
- Poems and Songs of Robert Burns publisher: London, Collins, 1955 ISBN 1426405588 OCLC 53420849.
- Blow, Simon (1987), Broken Blood - The Rise and Fall of the Tennant family. London: Faber. ISBN 0-571-13374-6 OCLC 16470862.
- Dugdale, Nancy (1973). Tennant's Stalk: the story of the Tennants of the Glen. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-33313820-1. OCLC 2736092.
- The will of Charles Tennant (1768–1838) 1840 Glasgow Sheriff Court Wills ref: SC36/51/16.
- The will of Margaret Wilson (1766–1843) 1845 Glasgow Sheriff Court Wills ref: SC36/51/21.
- Ordnance Survey map of Ayrshire 1860.
- Ordnance Survey map of Renfrewshire 1863.
- An Avant-Garde Family: A History of the Tennants.