Title
LAWES CHEMICAL COMPANY LTD
Reference
TR LAW
Production date
1843 - 1968
Creator
Creator History
Lawes Chemical Co Ltd was founded by John Bennet Lawes at Deptford Creek, London for the manufacture of superphosphate, later moving to Barking Creek. In 1872 it was incorporated as Lawes Chemical Manure Co Ltd, and went into liquidation in 1969.
J.B. Lawes (1814-1900) succeeded to the Rothamsted estate, Hertfordshire in 1822, taking possession in 1834, and began to experiment in agricultural chemistry, testing the action of fertiliser on various crops in field and plot tests through the 1830s and early 1840s. From his experiments he discovered that bone meal treated with sulphuric acid gave better results than untreated bone meal, and it was realised that this was the effect of the phosphoric acid content of the treated meal, the phosphoric acid in mineral phosphates being converted by means of sulphuric acid into a form available to plants. Lawes took out a patent for this means of production of superphosphate, and is responsible for founding the mineral superphosphate industry.
As well as founding the Lawes Chemical Co for the production of superphosphate, in 1843 Lawes founded the Rothamsted Experimental Station, continuing to make a large contribution to agricultural research.
Scope and Content
Records of Lawes Chemical Company Ltd.
Extent
199 Documents
Level of description
fonds
Content Subject
System of arrangment
TR LAW/AC1/1 Customer Ledger
TR LAW/AD1/1 Agenda
TR LAW/AD2/1-2 General Administrative and Commercial Records
TR LAW/AD4/1-2 Premises Records
TR LAW/AD7/1 Commercial Records
TR LAW/DO1/1 Drawings
TR LAW/ET1/1-3 Experiment and Trials Records
TR LAW/ET2/1-8 Reference Records to Products
TR LAW/ET3/1-2 General Technical Reference Records
TR LAW/P1/A1-4 Guardbooks containing Lawes' advertising publications
TR LAW/P1/B1-2 Guardbooks containing other firms' advertising publications
TR LAW/P2/A1-41 Individual Advertising Publications for Lawes Products
TR LAW/P4/1-10 House Journals
TR LAW/P5/1-2 Press Releases
TR LAW/P7/1-3 Records of Advertising Campaigns and Events
TR LAW/P8/1-5 Printing Proofs and Artworks
TR LAW/PH3/1-103 Photographic Prints
TR LAW/SP1/1-33 File of miscellaneous material relating to the company's history