Henry Davis Pochin
Encyclopedia
Henry Davis Pochin was an English
industrial chemist
. He was the son of a yeoman
farmer of Leicestershire
who served an apprenticeship to James Woolley (1811–1858), a manufacturing chemist in Manchester
, and in course of time became his partner. 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.
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 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 & 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, to form English China Clays Lovering Pochin & Co. Ltd (ECLP), with both Lovering and Pochin remaining shareholders. ECLP kept this name until it was able to buy the shares from the Lovering family and Pochin family. ECLP was restructured, and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the newly formed English China Clays group. ECLP was split up into four divisions; ECC construction materials, ECC quarries, and ECC transportation, and ECC international. ECC transportation was later merged into ECC international. Later the company divested all but two of its divisions, ECC International and ECC quarries. In 2000, the English China Clays group and its subsidiaries was bought by Imetal SA, which changed its name to Imerys
. Imerys has kept ECC International subsidiary as its speciality china clay producing division under that name, even though it does not use that name or division logo, which have been replaced by the Imerys name and logo. Imerys is now the world's largest china clay producer.
Pochin's principal china clay works was the Gothers
drying complex, near Roche, Cornwall
. This consisted of a number of kilns, each served by a narrow gauge tramway, and was considered to be an extensive works in its day. The tramway was known simply as Pochin's Tramway, and ran from the Gothers works, across the Goss Moor to a loading wharf on the St Dennis Branch. The tramway was operated by a small fleet of steam locomotives known as "Pochin's Puffing Billies", carrying clay to the wharf in crude three plank wagons. Upon reaching the wharf, the clay would be loaded in to standard gauge wagons. Coal for firing the kilns was transferred from standard gauge wagons into the narrow gauge tramway wagons for the return journey, the wagons were then cleaned of coal dust at Gothers before being loaded with clay for another trip. Because the crude tramway wagons had no braking mechanism, the train operators developed a novel solution that involved jamming a piece of timber between the spokes of the wheels while the train was in motion.
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 Company Limited, was also the first to be formed by David Chadwick (1821–1885) a Manchester accountant whose accounting methods in relation to capitallisation and depreciation have attracted interest even 100 years or more later.
Pochin was elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom
in 1868 as one of two Members of Parliament
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 Company, that sunk two shafts (North and South) at Pochin Colliery, Tredegar
, in 1876 to a depth of 340 yards (310.9 m); 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 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 (323,748.8 m²) 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
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
industrial chemist
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...
. He was the son of a yeoman
Yeoman
Yeoman refers chiefly to a free man owning his own farm, especially from the Elizabethan era to the 17th century. Work requiring a great deal of effort or labor, such as would be done by a yeoman farmer, came to be described as "yeoman's work"...
farmer of Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
who served an apprenticeship to James Woolley (1811–1858), a manufacturing chemist in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, and in course of time became his partner. 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
Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust was established in 1936 as an independent charity funding research to improve human and animal health. With an endowment of around £13.9 billion, it is the United Kingdom's largest non-governmental source of funds for biomedical research...
Library. On Woolley’s death Pochin became the sole proprietor.
Pochin is noted for two important inventions. Firstly, he developed a process for the clarification
Clarification
In journalism, a clarification is used to make a statement in a published story more clear. It refers to a statement in a story that, while factually correct, may be subject to a misunderstanding or unfair assumption....
of rosin
Rosin
.Rosin, also called colophony or Greek pitch , is a solid form of resin obtained from pines and some other plants, mostly conifers, produced by heating fresh liquid resin to vaporize the volatile liquid terpene components. It is semi-transparent and varies in color from yellow to black...
, a brown substance used to make soap, by passing steam through it so that after distillation
Distillation
Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatilities of components in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....
it came out white, thus enabling the production of white soap. He sold the rights to this process to raise money to exploit his second invention, which was a process using ammonium sulfate
Ammonium sulfate
Ammonium sulfate , 2SO4, is an inorganic salt with a number of commercial uses. The most common use is as a soil fertilizer. It contains 21% nitrogen as ammonium cations, and 24% sulfur as sulfate anions...
and alumina as a low cost alternative to alumstone in the production of 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...
cake used in the manufacture of paper.
The process required china clay, and Pochin bought several china clay mines in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
for this purpose. In time H. D. Pochin & 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, to form English China Clays Lovering Pochin & Co. Ltd (ECLP), with both Lovering and Pochin remaining shareholders. ECLP kept this name until it was able to buy the shares from the Lovering family and Pochin family. ECLP was restructured, and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the newly formed English China Clays group. ECLP was split up into four divisions; ECC construction materials, ECC quarries, and ECC transportation, and ECC international. ECC transportation was later merged into ECC international. Later the company divested all but two of its divisions, ECC International and ECC quarries. In 2000, the English China Clays group and its subsidiaries was bought by Imetal SA, which changed its name to Imerys
Imerys
Imerys is a French multinational company. It is a constituent of the CAC Mid 60 index.-History:The Company was founded in 1880 and for many years was known as Imetal....
. Imerys has kept ECC International subsidiary as its speciality china clay producing division under that name, even though it does not use that name or division logo, which have been replaced by the Imerys name and logo. Imerys is now the world's largest china clay producer.
Pochin's principal china clay works was the Gothers
Gothers
Gothers is a hamlet near St Dennis in Cornwall, England, UK....
drying complex, near Roche, Cornwall
Roche, Cornwall
Roche is a civil parish and village in mid-Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village gets its name from a granite outcrop east of the village. Roche is the Norman-French word for Rock....
. This consisted of a number of kilns, each served by a narrow gauge tramway, and was considered to be an extensive works in its day. The tramway was known simply as Pochin's Tramway, and ran from the Gothers works, across the Goss Moor to a loading wharf on the St Dennis Branch. The tramway was operated by a small fleet of steam locomotives known as "Pochin's Puffing Billies", carrying clay to the wharf in crude three plank wagons. Upon reaching the wharf, the clay would be loaded in to standard gauge wagons. Coal for firing the kilns was transferred from standard gauge wagons into the narrow gauge tramway wagons for the return journey, the wagons were then cleaned of coal dust at Gothers before being loaded with clay for another trip. Because the crude tramway wagons had no braking mechanism, the train operators developed a novel solution that involved jamming a piece of timber between the spokes of the wheels while the train was in motion.
Between 1863 and 1867, Alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
Pochin led a consortium
Consortium
A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....
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 Company Limited, was also the first to be formed by David Chadwick (1821–1885) a Manchester accountant whose accounting methods in relation to capitallisation and depreciation have attracted interest even 100 years or more later.
Pochin was elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
in 1868 as one of two Members of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Stafford
Stafford (UK Parliament constituency)
Stafford is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. The sitting MP is the Conservative Jeremy Lefroy....
. He also held public office at times as a Deputy Lieutenant
Deputy Lieutenant
In the United Kingdom, a Deputy Lieutenant is one of several deputies to the Lord Lieutenant of a lieutenancy area; an English ceremonial county, Welsh preserved county, Scottish lieutenancy area, or Northern Irish county borough or county....
and as Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
.
Henry Pochin was a director of the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company, that sunk two shafts (North and South) at Pochin Colliery, Tredegar
Tredegar
Tredegar is a town situated on the Sirhowy River in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, in south-east Wales. Located within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, it became an early centre of the Industrial Revolution in South Wales...
, in 1876 to a depth of 340 yards (310.9 m); the first coal was brought to the surface in 1881. The mine was named after Pochin’s daughter, Laura, who later married Charles McLaren
Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway
Charles Benjamin Bright McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway, PC, QC, JP , known as Sir Charles McLaren, 1st Baronet between 1902 and 1911, was a Scottish jurist and Liberal Party politician. He was a landowner and industrialist.-Education:Born in Edinburgh, McLaren was the son of the politician Duncan...
, the Tredegar Company Chairman later created first Baron Aberconway
Baron Aberconway
Baron Aberconway, of Bodnant in the County of Denbigh, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 21 June 1911 for the industrialist and Liberal politician Sir Charles McLaren, 1st Baronet. He had already been created a Baronet, of Bodnant, Gwylgre and Hilders, on 8 August...
.
Between 1871 and 1876 Henry Pochin had a residence in Llandudno
Llandudno
Llandudno is a seaside resort and town in Conwy County Borough, Wales. In the 2001 UK census it had a population of 20,090 including that of Penrhyn Bay and Penrhynside, which are within the Llandudno Community...
, North Wales at Haulfre, on the south facing landward side of the Great Orme
Great Orme
The Great Orme is a prominent limestone headland on the north coast of Wales situated in Llandudno. It is referred to as Cyngreawdr Fynydd in a poem by the 12th century poet Gwalchmai ap Meilyr...
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
Tal-y-Cafn
Tal-y-Cafn is a small settlement in Conwy county borough, north Wales.It lies in the Conwy valley close to the Roman settlement of Canovium at Caerhun, and was the site of a Roman river-crossing point of the River Conwy...
in the Conwy Valley comprising 25 farms with the Bodnant House and over 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) 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
Bodnant Garden
Bodnant Garden is a National Trust property near Tal-y-Cafn, in the county borough of Conwy, Wales. Bodnant Garden is situated above the River Conwy and overlooks the Conwy valley towards the Carneddau range of mountains.- History :...
was given to the National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
.