James Thomson (calico printer)

James Thomson (6 February 1779 – 27 April 1850) was an English industrial chemist who made a career and large reputation in calico printing. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1821.

Life

He was born in Blackburn, Lancashire. While studying at Glasgow University he came to know Thomas Campbell, who became a friend.[1]

The Thomson family was connected with the Peels, the manufacturing and political dynasty in Lancashire.[2] James Thomson went to work for Joseph Peel & Co., calico printers in London, around 1795, and remained there for six years;[3] Joseph Peel was an uncle of Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet.[4] While in London Thomson met William Hyde Wollaston and Humphry Davy.[3] Davy became a close friend, and they worked together on the theory of acids, with Thomson willing to inhale Davy's nitrous oxide in 1799.[5] In 1801 Thomson was brought in as a middleman in negotiations for Count Rumford to hire Davy, by Thomas Richard Underwood of the Royal Institution.[6]

The Primrose Works, set up near Clitheroe in Lancashire in 1801, became Thomson's, in partnership with others. The works aimed at the manufacture of prints of a high standard, and existed to 1854. Thomson innovated in technology: he took out an English patent for the Turkey red process of Daniel Koechlin in 1813, and invented his own indigo blue process with potassium bicarbonate.[2] Some of the employees were later distinguished: Walter Crum FRS spent two years working for Thomson,[7] and he also employed Richard Cobden about 1826[8] and Lyon Playfair about 1841.[9]

Thomson gave evidence to a select committee of Parliament, on trade, manufactures and shipping, in 1833.[10]

For Rees's Cyclopædia he contributed articles on textiles manufacture:[11]

  • Colour-making in Calico-Printing, (vol 9, 1808/9)
  • Copper in Calico-printing, (vol 9, 1808/9)
  • Copper Plate Work in Calico-Printing, (vol 9, 1808/9)
  • Cotton, (Vol 10, 1809). In this he defended the reputation of Richard Arkwright.[12]
  • Dipping in Calico-Printing, (vol 11, 1809)
  • Discharging of Colour, (vol 11, 1809)
  • Manufacture of Cotton, (vol 22, 1812). John Farey, jr contributed an account of Strutt's Works at Belper and made the drawings with which the article is illustrated.
  • Spinning,(vol 33, 1816)
  • Printing, Calico, (vol 39, 1819)

Notes
  1. Greenhalgh, Joseph Dodson (1869). Memoranda of the Greenhalgh family. p. 104. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  2. Henderson, William Otto; Ratcliffe, Barrie M. (1975). Great Britain and Her World, 1750-1914: Essays in Honour of W. O. Henderson. Manchester University Press ND. pp. 97–8 note 21. ISBN 978-0-7190-0581-7. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  3. Kargon, Robert (31 October 2009). Science in Victorian Manchester: Enterprise and Expertise. Transaction Publishers. pp. 88–9. ISBN 978-1-4128-1081-4. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  4. Musson, Albert Edward; Robinson, Eric (1969). Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution. Manchester University Press ND. p. 460. ISBN 978-0-7190-0370-7. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  5. Fullmer, June Z. (2000). Young Humphry Davy: The Making of an Experimental Chemist. American Philosophical Society. pp. 231–3. ISBN 978-0-87169-237-5. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  6. Fullmer, June Z. (2000). Young Humphry Davy: The Making of an Experimental Chemist. American Philosophical Society. p. 328. ISBN 978-0-87169-237-5. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  7. http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/mlemen/mlemen024.htm
  8. Lower, Mark Antony (1865). The worthies of Sussex: biographical sketches of the most eminent natives or inhabitants of the county, from the earliest period to the present time. Printed for subscribers only, by G.P. Bacon. p. 291. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  9. ODNB 18573 (Mercer, John)
  10. Baines, Edward (1835). History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain. R. Fisher and P. Jackson. p. 259. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  11. Harte, N. B. (1974). "On Rees's Cyclopaedia as a Source for the History of the Textile Industries in the Early Nineteenth Century". Textile History. 5: 119–127. doi:10.1179/004049674793691984.
  12. Burchell, Robert Arthur (1991). The End of Anglo-America: Historical Essays in the Study of Cultural Divergence. Manchester University Press ND. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-7190-3077-2. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
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