Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/167

 . Dundonald became an active member of this firm, and all the experimental trials appear to have been made at his suggestion, chiefly under his superintendence, and at his cost. In 1796 the new process had obtained a considerable degree of success, and in 1808 alkali (carbonate of soda) was obtained by decomposing the waste salt obtained from the soap-boilers. Thus was commenced the alkali manufacture on the banks of the Tyne, which speedily extended itself to Lancashire and Cheshire. Dundonald's motives were excellent, but his means were insufficient. 'Our remaining patrimony,' his son writes, 'melted like the flux in his furnaces.'

Dundonald also established a manufactory for the production of alumina as a mordant, for silk and calico printers; he engaged in the manufacture of British gum (starch, in the form of sago, exposed to a temperature of 600 F.), still extensively used; and he spent money on the economical preparation of salammoniac, and on a new process for obtaining white lead.

When on the west coast of Africa he had noticed the ravages made on ships' bottoms by worms. It now occurred to him to apply coal-tar ; and he immediately designed and built, at much cost, retorts for the distillation of tar from coal. He was quite correct in his views, and was very near the discovery of the other coal products, from which fortunes have been derived; but although he urged the admiralty to try the coal-tar on ships in the navy, he was never successful, mainly owing to the introduction of copper sheathing.

In the prosecution of his coal-tar patent Dundonald went to reside, in 1782, at the family estate of Culross Abbey. Here he erected kilns, and superintended the working of his collieries on the adjoining properties of Vallyfield and Kincardine ; but his unbusiness-like management led only to ruin. An explosion of one of his kilns, and the combustion of the escaping gas, suggested to Dundonald the possibility of applying coalgas as an illuminating agent. The result of all these schemes was failure.

In 1795 Dundonald published his 'Treatise showing the intimate connection between Agriculture and Chemistry.' Davy published his 'Elements of Agricultural Chemistry' in 1813. It has been urged that the celebrated chemist was indebted to the earl for many of the hypotheses which gave character to the 'Elements.' But Davy's appointment in 1802 to the post of chemist to the board of agriculture, and the allotment to him by Sir Thomas Bernard and Davies Gilbert of land on their estates for his experiments in agricultural chemistry, gave him the opportunity of making experiments which Dundonald never thought of.

Dundonald in 1785 proposed the malting of grain for the purpose of feeding cattle, and he published a treatise 'On the Use of Salt Refuse as a Manure.' Several of his suggestions have, with some modifications, been laid before the public as modern discoveries. The creative tendencies of his mind were considerable ; but he wanted the methodical training required to reduce his ideas to practice.

He died at Paris on 1 July 1831. His last years were spent in the most depressing poverty. His son writes : 'His discoveries, now of national utility, ruined him, and deprived his posterity of their remaining paternal inheritance.' He was thrice married, and had six sons by his first wife, Anne Gilchrist, the eldest of whom was Thomas Cochrane [q. v.], the admiral. His second wife was the widow of John Mayne; his third Anne Maria, daughter of Francis Plowden. She had a pension from the crown for her father's literary services, which died with her, and after her death (18 Sept. 1822) Dundonald received help from the Literary Fund.

[The Industrial Resources of the Tyne, Wear, and Tees, 1864; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Thomson's Cyclopaedia of Chemistry, 1854; Autobiography of a Seaman, by Thomas, tenth earl of Dundonald, 1860; Eeport of the Twenty-third Meeting of the British Association, 1863; Paris's Life of Sir Humphry Davy, 1831; Gent. Mag. 1831, pt. ii. 172-3.] 

COCHRANE, JAMES (1798–1883), chief justice of Gibraltar, son of Thomas Cochrane, speaker of the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia, was born in that colony in 1798. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1829, was appointed attorney-general at Gibraltar in 1837, and in that place he spent the rest of his life. He was made chief justice there in 1841, was knighted in 1845, and he retained his high office for thirty-six years, resigning in 1877. Upon that occasion General Lord Napier of Magdala, governor of the fortress, said of him : 'During the long time that Sir James Cochrane has presided over the supreme court at Gibraltar he has eminently maintained the high character of the bench. The clearness of his judgment, the wisdom of his decisions, and his personal character have commanded the respect of all classes of the community. He has done much for the lower classes, and his firmness and perfect fairness have helped greatly to dispel from the city of Gibraltar the crime of using the knife, which was unfortunately once so prevalent.' Cochrane married in 1829 Theresa, daughter of Colonel William Haly, who died in 1873. 