A most happy, joyful, healthy, hearty New Year to everyone from me, Larry and the whippet as well as the Vernon Girls of Widnes and able admin people, Beryl and Christine. Around the kingdom this year we will be celebrating the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta, that famous document credited with giving us the ‘freedoms’ we enjoy today. Special stamps and coins will be issued and our political servants, sorry rulers, are determined there will be celebrations galore. This year it is also 50 years since the death of Sir Winston Churchill and also 250 since our Parliament passed the Stamp Act, a deed with signed and sealed the fate of our then colonies across the Atlantic. The battle cry …. No taxation without representation … echoed from the New World and within months we were battling with the colonies in what became the American War of Independence. The United States of America was born! Taxes are never popular, as was demonstrated at the Boston Tea Party, and many years later when Government imposed a most unpopular Poll Tax on us Brits. Don’t expect any events to mark the death,100 years ago this year of Widnes’ own ‘Mad Professor’. It was on April 4, 1915 that James Hargreaves was found slumped across his desk at 142 Mersey Road, West Bank, having suffered a seizure. The ‘Prof’ was closely associated, from his arrival in Widnes in 1859, with two of the chemical pioneers of Widnes John Hutchinson and William Gossage, helping to improve the quality of our biggest export, soap. His challenge was to work on the recovery of sulphur from that chemical waste we know as galligu. From 1871 James and his younger brother John, had worked together as consulting chemists at number 142. James H made many contributions in the development of soap and alkali, products responsible for the fortunes of expanding Widnes. He also worked in the metallurgical and electro-chemical industries. James was the first person to propose a better way of cleaning sewage, cholera being a deadly disease in Widnes at the time. His assertion at the time was that the man who could solve the sewage problem would do more for his country and race than all of the politicians. At the time of his research in Victorian England, there was no decent sewage system in Widnes. Hundreds of homes used privy middens for their toilet visits. In the rush to throw up cheap houses to accommodate the thousands heading to what was the boom town along the Mersey, no attention was paid to proper sanitation. James also worked on a thermos-motor, a precursor to what would become the diesel engine. James’ last invention was a cattle feed for cows and pigs as well as poultry. His product was rich in phosphatic and nitrogenous elements. No doubt troubled by the levels of hunger in Widnes, at the time of his death he was working on the development of a version of his nutritious biscuit for human consumption. Sadly nobody ever got to sample on of his biscuits. He travelled far and wide giving talks and lectures and contributing to scientific journals of the day, and being a multi linguist could be seen arguing in perfect Italian with organ grinders from that country. James must have looked a striking figure, with his noble head and rabbinical beard. The description of his looks reminds me of that other imposing son of Widnes, John Laveric who I was privileged to know. The story of James Hargreaves reminds me so much how the dusts of time will eventually just disperse, leaving mere footprints of the past. Which is why, at this season of goodwill and in the spirit of auld lang syne I like to prompt people to say hello to their friends, but more importantly, to those from whom they are estranged. May one of us scoop the Camelot jackpot and throw the biggest party the town has ever seen.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 11:01:20 +0000
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