Excerpt from The Struggle for Supremacy: Being a Series of Chapters in the History of the Leblanc Alkali Industry in Great Britain It is scarcely possible to touch 'upon any industry which is independent of alkaline products. The tanner, for example, who for ages has soaked his raw hides in lime to detach the hair or wool, now finds that sulphide of sodium performs the same function in a fraction of the time required by the more ancient process. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.